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Anticipation off the scale!

2011-11-18T01:03:00.001-08:00

It's less than 24 hours until we will be heading down the motorway en route to the magical world of fontaineberry. The anticipation of climbing on cold, crisp and dry wonderful sloping grips is high!

I had a couple of days out this week to tune up, with a trip to the Roaches on Monday and a cave session yesterday.

Monday 14th

I headed over to the Roaches with Pete and Tom from the Hangar. The skies were grey when we arrived but crucially the green looking rock was bone dry. We pottered around the lower tier boulders and I enjoyed repeating the classics with the only downside being scraping my face up the wall getting a bit too close in on the undercuts dyno! It was dispached a couple goes later and I got stretch and mantle first try of the day, what an ace problem.

After doing the Ascent of Man start, we popped up the steps and I got the guys to do the brilliant Joe's Arete. Some geezer was on the block behind doing the cool looking Nadin's traverse, I whored the beta then flashed it. Pete got real close but kept losing it just before the right flake sidepulls.

We wandered up over the hill on a bit of a mision but found our way to Staffs Flyer. I'd wanted to get up here for so long with it being one of the classic peak roof problems. The ground was proper gopping, but we fashioned a rock patio of sorts and I layed down a survival bag upon which, the PoD pad was sacrificed! It looked like it could be spicy for 6b but after pulling on and crossing to the good crimp, I found I could build my feet high and lock static to the hold over the lip, I matched this then cut my feet and campussed up to the top. What a splendid problem!

Tom got it shortly after with a more dynamic sequence and I did the arete on the block to the right, another good problem.

It was getting very grim in the cold mist, so we returned to the Joe's arete area and I did the flakes and nose problems on the big block. I felt too tired to try Higginsons's roof traverse, so opted to go look at Mean Ol' Bastard. I found the pull on weird and then it was really hard to get my foot in the hole after getting the gaston. As soon as I realised I could lock into it and match the opposing gaston the problem went down in 2 goes. I briefly tried Apocalypse now but couldn't reach the top, it felt ridiculous for 7a+ so we bailed to the pub and had a well earned pint!

Being the idiot I am, I joined in a max intensity 'trying problems beyond your limit' session at the Hangar and found a few spicy pink problems to work on over the next couple of sessions. We finished off with 10 mins of core thanks to Laura's request and I went Ma Hoppo's for an amazing curry.

Friday 17th

Me, Laura and J headed over for a late session at the cave and found it to be fairly busy with strong Dan (a recently arrived local who has moved over from Leeds) there trying Louis Armstrong and looking pretty strong on those undercuts as well as Rich, Duncan and Alex (whom i mistook for Bertie from Beris in my fatigued state!).

I felt shattered warming up on right wall traverse but after a few more problems things felt better. My first go on Pilgrim was ok just failing to get my foot across to the spike. I rested up and then watched Laura almost crush the Right wall reverse into bust lip, falling off going into the last sidepull before the finishing jug!

Go 2 on Pilgrim was an improvement, getting to two pockets and throwing for the flake on R.A. I hoped I could get a bit further today than last session as it now felt steady to there but I was lacking a bit of endurance/strength maybe.

After a proper rest, go number 3 felt much better, I cruised through to the pockets without any mishaps and had something left going for the flake. Sadly I caught it terribly with two fingertips but clung on with a scream, I got my right foot through and left across into the first pocket, I matched the flake block and tried bumping my left hand on properly. My fingers were killing being half on-half off so I just threw out to the sidepull anyway and held on, I stepped my left foot through but the pain on the left fingers was too great and I had to let go.

It was a bit gutting to drop it there as I was quite confident of getting to the last move if I caught the flake but I forgot how much it hurts to not get it properly. It was marked progress from my last session on it, so hopefully it will go soon.

We finished the day off with another Hangar session going around the circuit set for the military comp on Wednesday and the recovery meal of Large fries with large lamb&chicken kebab from the Nile was immense! It will no doubt help me put on a layer of fat to survive a chilly font trip.

It would be nice to get a few things ticked off this trip as I feel in decent shape and have few injuries to speak of. The video camera shutter is currently not opening but hopefully this can be remedied with a stick to hold it open and we can get enough footage to make a short film of all our puntering :)

A rare day of success!

2011-11-05T05:38:00.000-07:00

Cave in the afternoon

On a whim, I decided to go to the cave Friday day time before the Stoke bouldering competition even though the forecast was for humidity, rain and no wind.

My psyche clearly rubbed off on Laura who decided to come along for moral support after finishing uni early.

We found the cave quite greasy but fairly busy with a small group of die hard locals and visitors playing on various things.

After warming up slowly I had a decent first go on In Life getting to the two slopers and taking my feet off very easily totally killing any swing but locking off too hard and not being able to rotate my feet round! I hung this position for several seconds before letting go bemused.

After a couple of close attempts Laura managed to get into the high sidepull and then to the glorious high finishing jug on Bust Lip for her first non slab/vert 7A+ tick! It was great to see her trying hard and being seemingly unaware of the possibility of a foot lock staying in above head height should she have failed to grasp the sidepull :)

The second redpoint on In Life saw me grasp the pinch on Left wall but then fall trying to go through to the fingerjug with the holds not feeling very dry. I feared the worst so had a longer rest than usual and fanned air on to them as well as chalk.

Laura tried to get Parisella's original done but couldn't quite hold the foot swing from releasing the heel-toe. Her efforts inspired me to pull my finger out and on the 3rd redpoint I managed to fall into the fingerjug screaming and slap out to the sloper. I scrambled across to the low flake almost falling at every move as my fingers unravelled and arms lost all feeling but thankfully the sanctity of the kneebar rest came just in time!

I didn't hang about too long and got the job done not feeling too bad on the end section and letting out a sigh of relief that I wouldn't have to crawl into the dirt any longer! Joy.

The sending spree gathered momentum and shortly after, Ducko breezed across Rockatrocity making the end look piss and not suffering the fate of many others on that horrid last hand move :)

Comp in the evening

We went directly from the cave to Stoke wall to see Youngy and have a play at the winter bouldering league. I always love going to new indoor walls almost as much as new outdoor venues as change is always a good thing and keeps things interesting.

After feeling pretty heavy on the warm ups I gradually got into things and had managed to flash 21/25 by about 8.30. With an hour left to try the last 4 I had to start resting for long periods of time just to summon the energy to pull on and make more than a couple of moves! I clawed my way to a couple of the bonus holds but fell off a couple I am sure would have been flashed had it not been such a long double day session.

The atmosphere at the comp was really nice and the locals friendly. There was a good bit of banter with the fellow comp hustlers from Stockport and even though I had puntered up at the end, I managed to sneak victory by about 10 points from one of the Stockport crew.

Needless to say after a victory beer, I slept like a corpse!

Build up to font

2011-11-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

After my physio sessions and a lot of fairly boring but ultimately back rewarding exercise, I have managed to rebuild my creaking carcass into something approaching a climbing adoni... healthy human being.

OUTSIDE

There have been many visits out on the grit and a welcome return to cave sieging which has been a lot less frequent than in the previous 2 years.

A need to try and broaden my skill base and volume of climbing on different rock has been suggested by others, so I have been giving it a crack and thoroughly enjoyed it so far, even if the warm weather and my recovering back has meant staying away from hard climbing.

I have had a great few days out in the Peak and Yorkshire with the best being a trip to the Cliff after finding midgies and grease at Caley. Andi E put together a good little clip with a classic soundtrack and some nice imagery from home:

http://vimeo.com/31219796

Back in the Cave I've gotten back to the same point as I had just before the wobbly block was pulled out of the roof, falling off with both hands on Left Wall on In Life.

Hopefully it will go soon when temps drop ever so slightly and strength endurance improves!

INSIDE

It has been a fun start to the winter bouldering rounds and I've done ok so far in the Hangar and Awesome Walls ones coming provisionally 2nd in one and 1st in the other. Admittedly the strength of the fields is quite low so the real challenge will be doing well in the first round of the NIBL in a couple weeks time.

There is also a coaching session coming up this weekend with Nige Callendar so I'm hoping to pick up some tips and see what can be improved upon the most to help achieve my goals both immediate and in the future.

FONT

My current mantra is not to push too hard before we head off to font on the 18th November for a week of *fingers crossed* cold and dry weather. It should be both inspiring and dismaying watching Web Parsons/Puccio/Coxsey and Garden warming up on personal projects but I'm just looking forward to being there and getting some classics done. Amazingly, I haven't written up a detailed list of problems for a change... and I'll see how going with the flow works out when we get there.

Physio trip

2011-10-05T09:00:00.001-07:00

After having a horrible re-occurance of my back spasm whilst serving a customer on Sunday, I made the effort to get Tuesday evening off and I went to see the recently installed Tuesday night physio Hannah down at the Hangar. Luckily she was able to help me out with some stretching/ROM exercises focussing on getting my lower back working again and then strengthened.

I've been given homework to do 3-4 times daily to help speed up the process and have also purchased a rather fetching hot water bottle from the evil Tesco empire to help warm the old lower back up before I do any gentle stretching. I road tested it before whilst driving to the Hangar this afternoon and it was pretty damn amazing!

Hopefully with careful dedication to these specific exercises, things will be on the mend by next Tuesday and I can maybe have my upper back looked at which was been dodgy (bit of a locked up and tender bruised feeling either side of my spine) for the last 2 months. She didn't want to touch that for now as the lower back isn't yet strong enough for my upper back to receive some un-knotting, it is unsuprisingly a bit of a mess from years of training and never having anything done to ease it up!

I then have a 5 day window from Thursday till Monday to get out and do some rock scaling with my good friend mr Skyner Weeks. We are both quite keen to do a bit of grit volume at the moment so we will probably hit both the Peak and Yorkshire. There are lots of high classics I am keen on but these will likely have to be postponed till normal back strength/mobility is restored. Fingers crossed for a cold and dry October :)

You know you're getting old when...

2011-09-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

You hike uphill for 20 mins, warm up at the crag on some easy solo's and then pull your back whilst pulling on the loops of your sending shoes!

It seems I only blog about injuries and rehab these days and sure to form after vastly improving on the shoulder front, my lower back went yesterday in the most frustrating of ways. Right at the start of the session after driving up there solo and hauling 4 pads up to Warton.

Monday 26th

I went up to the South lakes with Mike and Sam on a Woodwell mission. Sadly it was pretty minging at O'ert Road and Tom's roof but pulling on with a towel and skipping holds allowed us to warm up on Angel Deelite. Mike did it after a bit of trouble with the top section and Sam didn't quite manage it. I worked on the Flying Finish going rightwards from the flat jug but couldn't work it out. I tried spanning across the lip but it felt wrong and then attempted it using the undercut on Backhand Roof, a left heel to hand and then throwing wildly over the top for a distant hold but kept spinning off with the angle feeling weird.

We moved over to Tom's and there wasn't much dry for Mike and Sam to try but I hadn't attempted the Footless Marathon before today, so thought it would be a fun thing to do, which wasn't quite true as it was sharp and wet but I got through it and just about held on to the last big slap for the flash.

We headed to where we knew would be dry and the Shelterstone face didn't let us down. Mike and Sam took turns trying the Pit Problem and I almost did The Buccaneer in a couple of tries only to hold the swing and then fall off matching the lip. About 45 mins of sweating off, swearing and nearly giving up ... I managed to hold the swing again and made no mistakes on the 4b top out!

Thursday 29th

After a trip up to Warton the day before with Laura and J Railton. I headed back up the M6 on my billy no mates in White Beauty. Rather than leave Ebenezer Goode till another time with yesterday's afternoon heat being draining, I got there a little earlier before the sun could come around on to the buttress.

As you may have read at the beginning of this post, I hauled up several mats and arrived feeling good. A few Solo's and a strained back later. I was prone on the mat trying to stretch it out and it didn't feel too bad immediately, just a bit stiff. I was a bit angry at the prospect of the petrol cost and pad hauling being all for nothing, so did the clever thing and got on my project anyway to show it who's boss!

It wasn't looking good 2 goes later as I felt a bit achey and had fired off the lip dish twice. The next go I somehow scraped through panting and grunting to the sidepull at the end but couldnt summon the energy to get the kneebar in and slid off. I knew it would go in colder temps and the sun was starting to shine on the hold so I swore a bit, brushed the holds and gave it my all.

I battled through to the same position and managed to get the kneebar in just as my fingers were uncurling from the painful handswap hold. I shook like a shitting dog laybacking the crack without being able to feel much through the pump and was mightily relieved to reach the break and lean into the corner to take a 2 minute rest before topping out!

I hobbled back down gingerly and dragged myself and pads back down the hill feeling every single step shooting up my back.

The drive home was uncomfortable and I could barely move when arriving back in Merseyside!

I wisely dosed up on various creams and pills and went to a BBQ at a friends where copious amounts of red wine and food seemed to ease the pain. It was a lot better this morning once I got moving and had a hot shower but has started to feel bad in the shop bending up and down to get shoes for customers!

A cocktail of Naproxen, Diclofenac, Ibuprofen gel and Paracetemol should hopefully help... I can't wait to see the physio next Tuesday!

Some welcome News

2011-09-23T11:44:00.001-07:00

The reason for being a little quiet of late is down to another shoulder injury!

Fortunately it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as the ones that I had to fix for 2-3 months at the end of last year/start of this.

I spent a few days resting and then got straight on to the usual routine of assisted movement, stretching and then gradual strengthening with the theraband whilst trying not to get too down about all the oh so near projects that would have to wait a bit longer than anticipated.

Looking at my activity diary, it was quite clear I had been overloading a bit in terms of climbing/weights at the gym but I am pretty certain I caused it during the comp on the grim corner mantle presses. I quite enjoy comps now and again but this is about the 3rd time I've picked up an injury in the last year directly from comp style pressing.

Once fixed, it's tempting to pack it in and stick to climbing on more basic stuff which doesn't involve contortionism, relates more directly to what I want to do outside and is less likely to cause further anguish!

Rehab Day 1

After about 8 days of rest/theraband I had a great day out in Wales with Laura and a poorly Dexter the dog who nearly spewed all over the floor in V12! We started off at RAC bumping into Shauna and Skyner Weeks.

It was the ideal place to do a bit of volume as well as ticking off guidebook gaps in my lifelong quest to tick the North Wales Bouldering guide (Sadly minus roadrunner cave!).

The highlight was managing to drag my unfit corpse across the Pump Traverse sans cracks at the mighty grade of 7a. Laura flashed a load of the easy minor classics and we drove over to the pass.

Rather than get bored on the roadside face, I suggested we go check out the highball stuff at Pont Y Cromlech where I had ticked off the Seam and a quality V2 a few years back.

Laura made a casual flash of The Seam and then flashed all of the other stuf up to V3. I ticked off the up lines apart from the high and scary V4(E2?) rounded arete, where I found myself stood up on the undercut and unable to reach the hanging crack high up. The fall trajectory would have been super sketchy with the 3 small pads, so I bailed off left and saved it for a big balls day!

We finished off at the roadside where we met Rich and Bertie and Laura agonisingly dropped the top of Johnny's problem from the sitter several times, before we went to Pizza and a Pint which seems to have an exponential price creep of late!

Indoor Rock Scaling and Cake!

Since that day out I've just been circuiting indoors at the Hangar and only tested the creaking joints on some slightly harder stuff yesterday, including winning a brownie for getting the first ascent of the grim vertical traverse (problem 21) on the blue 4-6 circuit.

Next week brings 3 days off work and hopefully a chance to get out on some real stones if I can find a willing crew to share the petty costs! I'm really keen to go try and finish off XXXX at the Bowderstone and Ferrino with no pockets in the cave but they could both prove a tad ambitious/burly in terms of rehab problems!

Ater all this chatting shit, I re-read the title of this blog and realised I didn't actually expand upon it!

The welcome news (with my usual situation of a new injury being just around the next pressy corner) is that the Hangar has drafted in a physio who will be down there every Tuesday evening to help cure us of our ailments and hopefully put us on the road to normal human posture! I am obviously excited by this and looking forward to getting a sports massage having had a perma stiff back for quite some time. It may be £20 well spent which would otherwise be splashed out on 2 bottles of red from my current local shop of choice.

Lakes Trip and The Hangar Comp

2011-09-08T07:34:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks since I last bothered to post, maybe longer?!

On the August Bank Holiday weekend, I took a break from weights training to embark on a learning to climb again trip with Laura, Mark, the Hoppo crew and two strong geezers from Stockport.

Fri 26th

Wales looked well dodgy as did venues further south, so we headed north to St Bees. Without having booked anything, we eventually found a quiet campsite about 20 minutes drive from St Bees village that had plenty of space as well as a very unique bathroom/shower setup built into quaint sheds about the size of kids playhouses.

Friday was spent at St Bees South and having never been before, we opted to walk along the coastline and check out area A en-route to the better stuff. It looked pretty poor, so we went straight across to the Kraken area.

After a warmup on some great technical walls, we moved over and all climbed the missing corner block which featured big pockets and a great kneebar move. The Kraken could wait no longer and after watching Michael have an attempted pull on, I patted some chalk on the holds and flashed the normal version, before he swiftly followed. Mark then cruised along it after getting untangled from his long legs underneath the rock. I climbed the Kraken LH straight after which shared the same start and then a nice delicate rockover left onto and up the slab.

We moved round the corner and I flashed the sitter to Black Hole using a very sketchy high left heel to get to the good pocket. Michael repeated this by simply campussing about 4 moves in a row!

We decided to get off early and get an ice cream, when I realised I hadn't tried Killer Bee. The others sighed, so I threw down 2 pads and had a great flash attempt pulling on, getting a left knee scum and slapping up again LH only to overshoot the small crimp and slide over it. I wasn't to be denied and on the 2nd go I caught the crimp and then slapped through to the top. It's a great couple of moves but probably a bit on the soft side?

Sat 27th

The day dawned beautifully sunny and we made an early start over to St Bees North via Morrisons.

After getting lost looking for the easy route down so as not to make Ma Hoppo flip her lid... Ian found the path and we all rushed down and across the boulders, which took a bit of time but was preferable to the death descents.

We warmed up around the Apiary area with the lids making short work of Headbanger. Despite it being in the shade, myself, James, Tom and Michael all got shut down on Clash of the Titans. This must be the hardest 7A+ I have ever tried bar the infamous one at Franchard Sablons. As that is the 3rd time I've been and left empty handed.

Thoroughly warmed up, myself, James and Tom all got up Chipper's Wall but only after sacrificing a pad to the water pond to the left to avoid twisted ankles.

James crushed the grim mono crossover problem of Dan's around the corner Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and I did the direct on the left. We then both tried and failed spectacularly on Power of RAA but felt it might be a tad easier not in direct sun and +20deg heat. My best effort was getting up the layback bit and left hand on the very thin scoop gaston trying to move my feet up and right on to poor smears. Keen to go back for this.

Everyone shifted down to Fisherman's as Ma Hoppo sunbathed and Ian did a spot of fishing.

A few of us flashed the basic jump and campus problem of Parky 93 and James did the very tricky arete problem. Laura crushed the dirty crimp problems on the wall around the corner and I got Fruits de Mer ticked in a couple of goes from a hanging start eliminating the block underneath but unsure if this is the correct method?

As the sun disappeared and a massive wall of rain headed towards us, we knew it was time to bail.

I got a bit of running beta off Tom and after a couple of warm up goes, I got hold of the crimps on Lateral Mindset and made the massive slap up to the sloping ledge above. It was great to do such an amazingly unlikely problem which I had written off as not possible a few years ago.

Me and Mark cajoled Laura into having another go on Fishermans dyno after a slight tantrum/hissy fit had shocked us a bit! :P Luckily she persevered and managed to make the heel stay on long enough to grab the high jugs and it was in the bag.

Unfortunately as we topped out at the lighthouse area, the Wall of rain caught up with us and we were drenched from head to toe by the time we reached the farm!

Another night of good food and plenty of ale in the pub made up for this :)

Sun 28th

The weather was about to turn so we headed across the Lakes for a brew and cake in Keswick before heading down Borrowdale to the mighty Bowderstone.

Most of the guys hadn't been so I gave a bit of a tour and managed to upset some others who were already there who left shortly after our arrival. I guess they were expecting solitude on a bank hol?

There was a lot of attempting but not much achieving as we kept getting spells of rain soaking the lip holds on a few things.

Laura managed a great 2nd go ascent of The Crack Direct and Youngy likewise. James ticked through everything I showed him including Impropa Opera 2nd go and managed to drop the last move of Grand Opera on the flash purely down to wet holds!

We both got Slapstick done the dyno way which was also has a great crossunder move after sticking the initial sloper.

As the weather got worse, we stopped climbing and then had our overdue BBQ under cover after being denied it at St Bees. We finished off the day in the pub down the road and camped overnight hoping for better weather.

Mon 29th

James and Tom had to get off early, so the 4 remaining decided to have one more quick session at the Stone.

After a hard 4th-day-on warmup, Michael got agonisingly close to Impropa, dropping the last hold a few times.

A guy from down South was trying the low left sitter into Phantom and gave me a great piece of beta for the last move on Grand Opera. With this new knowledge of dropping the left foot off to make the last move, I managed it in a couple of goes. Another down in the quest to tick the Operas!

I had a long rest and then tried my main aim on the Stone, XXXX. I quickly worked out where to put the feet for the moves and then had a couple of good goes at linking the whole thing. I had 1 good attempt with fingers on the lip but not quite enough to hang on and bump! The goes got gradually worse slapping further away from this high point but I was getting into this slap move every go. Hopefully I can get a trip back up there sooner rather than later if the shocking weather abates.

Me and Michael got back to Liverpool still motivated and after a subway, crushed a load of the new pink v6-11 set that Shauna and Ged had been setting before total collapse occured.

End of Summer Hangar Comp

After Mike psyche couldn't turn up due to work commitments, I was installed as the favourite to win, which is never a good thing!

On turning up in the afternoon, my nerves were made all the worse by seeing Nathan Phillips had turned up and been entered into the mens to make it more competitive in the U18's.

I made sure to use some tactics learned on previous comps. I went round and checked out the problems and then warmed up fast on some intermediate ones and got the big pumpy roof out the way early on as to avoid failure later.

I got on the greasy sloping horrors earlier than usual before they got too grim and managed to get through to 26/30 flashes by 5.30. The last 4 all looked hard so I chose the one I thought looked the most basic and flashable! I'd seen Nathan come off it earlier as well as James the beast so knew it could be tricky. I opted to swap Velcros for Dragons and it paid off as everything felt precise and I hit the holds perfectly to setup for the crux. I jumped over off the small crimp and caught the middle of the pinch, twisting into the move and making the hold better. I let out a bit of a scream and managed to just hold on before jumping over again to the top hold.

I knew I was in with a chance of doing well now and had 3 left to go. I watched Nath dispatch the desperate looking groove into dyno problem which nobody else had got close to. I tried it shortly after and after getting bunched into a ridiculously small space, I made a pitiful attempt to grab the hold on the face before flying past.

I knew I wouldn't get up it this way and thought Nath would surely crush the other one I had done next go. Luckily for me he fell off twice more meaning a max of 1 point if he got it in 4+ goes. I decided to try something a bit different and got back on the groove start. I wound up and made a massive backwards leap towards the face hold and got all fingertips on the edge of the hold before continuing backwards and nearly into the assembled crowd.

A short rest and I knew it had to go down if I was to get near to winning. This time I managed to generate a bit more power from the chicken legs and got right on it, holding the violent outswing and then campussing up to the next rail. I got a high foot and then just about made the slap over the top lip to match a relieved man.

I got absolutely shut down on the hard slab managing to get hold of the penultimate hold but not move my feet any further. Nathan got super close hitting the top hold but not sticking it a couple of times and I was grateful Ged had put such a shit hold on!

The last problem was a steep roof with a lot of burl, toe hooks, greasy slopers and endurance. Nobody got close on their 3 point scoring goes. I took a half hour rest and then went back to try and just get a single point incase it was necessary and dropped the very last hold. I was knackered but had still won by a slim 3 point margin!

In the women's event, Becky from our comp team came in 1st, followed by Laura who was having a bit of an off day :(

In the Juniors, Hoppo had tied with Sheepy and they had to do a horrific timed climb off on the orange linkup. Hoppo had no chance as he is a stocky chest and Sheepy is a whippet-like route climber and he won by a comfortable 10+ seconds.

Mon 5th Sep

Myself, Hoppo, Mike psyche and Millso went to the cave.

Conditions weren't too bad and we met Dan Turner in there along with a non ginger Freeman brother!

He had just done Cave Life and was currently having fits trying to do Pit of Hell, finding Rockatrocity a bit hard going, with a grasp for sequences as bad as Mills and Mike.

I greased off on Cave Life Short and knew this wouldn't be a good day to try In Life, so switched attention to trying some moves. I quickly did the sequence for Ferrino sans pockets from the rail on Lou F and was suddenly full of psyche realising I could now do the end every go from the pinch and rail.

I had 4 redpoints and managed to latch the penultimate sloper hold before the finish slot but not quite good enough to move off. It's definitely a realistic goal for next visit conditions permitting.

We met Doyle (who had plenty of filth to spout!) and Tommy who decided to get off and do some more routes rather than join the pebblewrestlers.

We got back to the Hangar for 7pm and I ate 5 chickenwings and a bag of potato wedges from the ASDA hot counter, before embarking on a very poor comp style session on the yellows followed by core which nearly ended me.

Branching Out

2011-08-10T12:02:00.001-07:00

After a semi successful trip to Switzerland bagging a couple of 8A's and a few 7C/+ it has been a bit of a mundane return to climbing back in the UK.

A mixture of heat and rain has killed the psyche for hard bouldering and I have found my interest waning of late.

I've had no regular pattern of training or climbing outdoors and it really has been all a bit of an effort. I've not been to team training for a few weeks and just pottered indoors and out achieving nothing harder than 7B since getting back over a month ago, the highlight being Rigpa over at a sweltering Nescliffe.

Rather than battle through shit conditions I decided to be lazy and have enjoyed several games of golf with Mark at Allerton and Fiddler's Ferry, trying to regain some old skills and put to use the slight extra bulk gained through bouldering the last 5 years or so in hitting the ball an extra 30 yards per club!

As well as the golf, I've been out fishing a couple of times with the esteemed TC Mills over on the barren shores of New Brighton. I was promised epic catches of Ray but so far we have managed a few whiting and a plaice (and thankfully no blanks so far :))

I have to say I'm highly excited about the new premiership season kicking off and seeing how Liverpool get on with so many new underwhelming signings. The psyche is high too, to try and usurp Ian Thomas at number 1 in the UKB league after him beating me down into 2nd place for the last 2 seasons!

As well as the golf/fishing/football I went down to a proper back street weights gym in Garston with Hoppo and had a great time this morning trying to see how many machines we could max out. I managed to max out 4 then we had a good free weights session followed by some weighted pullups and boxing. I felt destroyed after and am keen to make it a regular feature 1-2 times a week to help with overall strength conditioning whilst the weather is turd and for £3 a session it's way cheaper than most activities.

On a more climbing related note...

I went to the cave for the first time in ages on Monday and had a half decent return getting to cutting loose on the slopers on In Life before slowly sliding off them and then nearly climbing Left Wall high at the end of our 5 hour session after never being close ever! I hate that shuffle so much but figured if I get it wired it opens up High Life and In Heaven for later in the year once In Life is put to bed!

I'm nowhere near strong enough to link Louis Armstrong after being so slack of late but am keen to get back on it later in the year once I've tested out a weights&strength training phase to feel stronger on the undercuts!

Overload!

2011-06-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

It's been another busy week of trips and comps as I gear up towards Magic Wood on Saturday.

Fri 10th June

Me and Laura went up to Thorn Crag for an evening session as the weather turned from sketchy to beautiful afternoon sun.

The walk in was a bit epic and easily took the 30 mins predicted in the topo but I did manage it in a oner without having to sit down, which was the first goal of the day achieved but not before a well camoflaged grouse had flewn out of a bush about half a metre from me and made me shit my pants!

We warmed up at the pathside boulders and despite being a bit sweaty we both managed to flash the aretes and the classic groove of Burnt Heather. Around on the side and I sketched my way up both and for my next trick and fix my sink on the flash. Both are undoubtedly a bit easier if your not a midget.

Laura got really close on 'and for my next trick' but was struggling to switch hands to launch for the top. She had a rest from it and we went over to look at Bad Moon Rising. It was a great looking line with a bit of a suspect flake to pull on with and plenty of potential blocks to land on!

After having a quick look at the 7a to the right and getting completely shut down I moved the pads leftwards to Bad Moon Rising and got the psyche on. First try and I got up to the high right hand sloper eyeing up the massive left hand pinch but couldn't quite figure how to connect it without an obvious left heel hook in sight. Before I could make a decision, the hand fired off and I was back on the mats but not down the hillside.

A bit more chalking and then back to the same spot, I just got a high right toe, swung the left foot back and then used the ninja leg flick to launch left and snatch the massive pinch and squeeze together with a bit of a grunt and legs flailing everywhere. The top out was a bit spicier than expected but no knees were brought into action.

Laura didn't quite fancy it, so we moved back down to the pathside boulders and she had another good go on 'for my next trick', hitting the lip of the top but not getting enough on it and the next go brought 2 split tips and no joy!

As we hadn't got there till about 6pm, we moved on rapidly to the Seaview area. I dispensed with a warmup and got straight on the Mothership Reconnection asking for a couple of photos as a spot wouldn't be necessary. Well this proved to be wrong as when I was reaching left hand to the top, the right hand fired off and I sailed past the only pad and landed on my right arse cheek on the edge of the block with all of my weight! Thankful not to break any bones, I had a minute to get my breath back and then got up it without any troubles after chalking it up a bit more. Such a good problem and worth the walk alone.

We finished off circuiting the easier problems around the block as Laura terrified me with some not so steady topping out skills and we watched the sun go down out in the direction of the sea.

Papa John's pizza and getting to sleep at 1.30 strangely proved to be ideal preparation for the next day.

Sat 11th June

After waking up feeling like a bit comatose... a shower, porridge and coffee woke me up a treat and I rushed over to the Hangar as she went off for family duties.

Me, psyche and Little Hoppo hit the road and rocked up at City Bloc in record time as the roads were quite clear.

We entered the Open comp which was 40 qualifiers to try and be one of 4 finalists for the evenings event.

After getting beaten by both of my team mates in the previous couple of comps after massive underachievement, I had a score to settle and started off well. I ticked through the first 32 problems not feeling the affects of the previous evenings climbing and a late night too much until disaster struck and I puntered off a yellow on a vertical wall featuring a really shit greasy volume. I managed to hold on to it 2nd go but knew it could be a costly mistake. I didn't expect to feature anywhere today and the lack of pressure probably helped as I flashed the first 3 greens I tried and then came to the last two. I almost stuck the double dyno one out to the lip but couldn't quite manage to hold the swing back in. I would have expected to get this within 3 tries so was a bit disappointed. I was too out of steam on the last green on the woody and powered out on the salmon in the roof after a good 2nd try. I was so spent, I didn't even try the last salmon on the sloping crimps and just handed in the card to go for a sleep upstairs.

When they announced the finalists, I missed out on being joint 4th by 3 points (the ones I dropped on that yellow) so came in 7th as 3 people shared 4th place. I didn't get beaten by any punters, so that was a relief but could have done better.

Mon 13th June

This day proved to be fantastic in terms of endurance.

Myself, the esteemed T Mills, Irish Pete, Mike psyche and Motormouth Sam all hit the Cave to make the most of the sunny weather.

I got reacquainted on the warmups and managed to repeat Beaver Cleaver Direct 2nd go after Sam started to have a play on it. I used his new hand beta which was cross handed and going off the good bit instead of the shit Pinch I had used previously. This felt way easier than a couple years ago, so I got on the sitter straight away with a new tick seemingly guaranteed.

About 45 mins of failure to hold the lip and I was getting a bit disheartened so decided to try something else.

Sam stuck with that, whilst Mills got involved with Rockatrocity and Psyche was on Broken Heart. Pete managed to drop the end of Parisella's original a few times including some spicy falls but no broken bones.

I decided to try Louis Armstrong as I hadn't been on it for a while and wanted to see if it felt any nearer to realistic than last time.

I had a couple of really good slaps to the lip, dragging my feet a bit on the mats but much closer to holding than previously, slowing the swing down a lot. I could still pull on at this point and finish the rock climb every go which was encouraging.

The start had proved to feel even harder than the crux slap on my previous tries but first go of the day: I went out to the shit crimp/drag, got a heel on the RA flake and clamped the right foot under and reached past my head to the shothole undercut totally static! I was shocked to find that I was still on the rock and managed to walk my feet up and get out to the big RH undercut before flicking into the left one to match. I caught this poorly and then fell off. Breakthrough!

After a short rest I then did the move again in even more control and it felt easy. I got out to the undercuts, this time getting the left one better and getting my right foot out to generate hip movement for the slap to the rail. I had a poor slap and was stood on the ground before getting close to holding it but it was a great progression. Chalking up, I could still climb it to the finish.

I was so psyched to get the first bit figured out as Danny/Nacho's crossover method was way too hard for me and now it's a matter or recruiting the crux slap and putting some time in on undercut burl.

To finish off I managed a lap of RA, Lou F and Cave Life short before we headed the Hangar.

Despite the long cave session, myself, Mike and Sam had a go at the new White circuit which is a much fiercer beast than the last, set by the king of crimp Nige Callendar.

It is a testament to training lots of circuits/pyramids of problems that I could still climb 8 of these and almost another 4-5 after 8 hours of climbing.

I finished off with Laura, Becki and Olivia with a 20 min core session whilst Farnell ran about doing hundreds of problems around the centre looking quite sprightly for a crippled vet! ;)

The morning after

I woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a bus with what feels like deep fatigue and bruising within my arms. Hopefully it will have subsided by tomorrow afternoon and I can get another productive session in at the cave or the Hangar with Mills.

A brief update

2011-06-06T08:20:00.001-07:00

I've had nothing much to report over the last few weeks but did manage to get to do some outdoor rock climbing as well as another comp experience under the belt.

Elephantitus

Me and little Hoppo chugged over at a steady pace to find Llanberis in sunshine. We got a brew then hit the road. The cromlech boulders were parked out, so we sacked warming up and went straight through rain at pen-y-pass to overcast dryness and a stiff breeze down at Llyn Gwynant.

It wasn't much fun carrying 4 pads between us but made it worthwhile once there with the dodgy rocks on the floor.

The warmup consisted of an arduous walk in, followed by some starjumps and some pullups on jugs and crimps.

We had a small camera with us to try get some footage together to make some Team Hangar short clips to appease the sponsor and fought our way into some crippling toedowns.

I did a couple of laps on Elephantitus to warmup and give Hoppo the sequence and he got it done relatively fast, having to cut loose to hold on to the sloper move.

I managed a smooth lap of Going down on an elephant and then Hoppo came very close, falling off at the sloper crux of elephantitus 3 times!

The goal for the day was to get Tusk done as I had seen Sorle piss it on a facebook vid recently. I initially found the crimp very painful and the left heel hard to lock in and weight but eventually it all came together with the changing of Hornets for my ever reliable Team shoes!

When it went it felt utter piss for the grade but it had felt nails until that moment. I thought I may as well have a burn on Cross Therapy as the videos of Sorle walking it and Danny mauling it were quite inspiring.

It went fairly well cruising through the start and also the crossunder and campus drop down move. I got into Tusk and had the heel in, left hand guppy... coil up to throw.. then the heel ripped out.

I was quite psyched by the first attempt so rested up whilst Mike carried on trying GDOAE. He got about 10 attempts into the space of 15 mins and it was time to go again..

I got through to the exact same place feeling even better than on the first go, the guppy felt good and the heel solid. This time I coiled and threw over left hand to the pinch catching it in the right spot and celebrated a bit prematurely in my head only for the heel to peel off as I started to engage the thumb.

We sacked it off and went to Jerrys Roof to try and get Jerry's and Bus Stop on the camera but the batteries died and we were a bit knackered from all the walking about, so the day was cut short to pick up stock in Beris and go for pizza and a pint.

Roc Bloc

After looking at the list of people entered, the goal was to try and get in the top 20, maybe 15 at a push and I managed an ok 15th place despite falling off 2 I definitely should have flashed (then failed to even complete).

The field was deep and packed full of beastliness with Dave Barrans not even making the final 6!

For my fellow Hangar Team, Sean did really well getting 12th place and Mike psyche came in 14th after some point scoring error where we all thought he had come 10th but it wasn't to be.

Little Hoppo walked the boys 11-15 category looking about twice the size of all his rivals and his age was questioned by a rather suspicious announcer. He's looking stacked for a kidda... going to be scary in a couple of years!

Becki and Laura both did well getting into the final 12 in the womens and it goes without saying that Shauna crushed in the women's being pushed very close by Mina.

The comp was pretty fun with a nice variety of things to be getting on with but the heat was unbelievable (people were outside in the sunny 25 deg heat cooling down!).

As at the depot comp last December I managed to get another shoulder area injury but this time on the right hand side. Not quite sure what it is yet, but it feels like I pulled my tricep/lat/back of shoulder right across when on the green roof problem in the shady cave corner. I carried on after and still did another few problems but it hurt yesterday and is marginally better today.

Going to be super careful and not mess it up before a return to Magic Wood on June 18th :)

Shit indoors

2011-05-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Just about sums it up!

I went up to Newcastle on Friday with my fellow Hangar Team mates to take part in the ASBO comp. I was hoping to improve upon my luke warm performance in the Hangar one and get into at least the final.

Well I climbed like a muppet and basically fell off three very easy qualifiers on vertical walls and slabs! It took 4 goes to do a mantle and despite flashing every other problem down in the pool area, these earlier errors cost me dear and I finished well outside the top 5! Probably out the top 10 and got beat by Sean, Ged and Michael.

Comp punter!

On to the final and Sean and Ged represented us taking 5th and 6th place respectively in the men's. A disturbingly strong Nige Callendar took the title back flashing everything in the final.

For the Women's a local lass retained her title just ahead of the steely fingered Karin Magog and our team mate Becky came 4th in her first comp, a great effort.

We went out for a filthy kebab afterwards to punish the body some more and finished off with various fine whisky's round at Ged's place.

The next morning was a pleasant affair with Nige being our mid morning breakfast delivery service, carrying wonderous gifts such as bacon and bread.

We shot up to Bowden and found it in great condition with a nice breeze keeping it cool and not overly sweaty.

We warmed up around Transformer and I managed to flash every variation on that bit of rock before doing the cool easy highball Brutally Handsome with Ged over to the left.

We moved down crag and as the others went off to try some high stuff, I crawled under the roof and got stuck into V Crimps, getting it done in about 3 attempts.

I went over to Vienna and managed to fall off after getting right over the top of the hold several times as it was super greasy and then the rain came!

We bailed under the V Crimps roof and had some lunch whilst people complained of various aches and skin issues caused by the comp.

As a rewarm up I managed a flash of the Cave Central LH line which climbed superbly well and then had a look at Sprung.

It looked very flashable so I got it matted out, put a decent pair of climbing pumps on and pulled on. It went smoothly until I crossed over from the sharp crimps to the left hand edge but went too high and right on it and couldn't hang the bit of nothing I had. I pulled back on and then pissed the move and to the end, shame!

A couple more goes to the same point and my skin got way too thin as arms got tired and people got a bit bored of shivering in the rain.

We packed up and then went back to Ged's via Morrisons where we purchased and then consumed vast amounts of garlic bread/pizza/ice cream and headed back to the pool.

Back to training on Monday and hopefully I can cure this habit of falling off easy vertical walls/slabs as the steep stuff seems to be in working order. It's obviously fun to be climbing ok outdoors but I'd love to be less shit at comps!

Hangar Comp Hangover

2011-05-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the Hangar hosted it's 2nd comp (the first being a local Red Nose Day affair). It attracted the big guns with there being a cash prize on offer so the level of problems had to be raised a notch to test even the best.

I was hoping to maybe sneak into the final 5 as I knew Ned, Dave and James were all over representing team GB but Gaz Parry also turned up, so I knew I was likely going to be behind these seasoned comp beasts!

The qualifying problems were spread all over every angle and stupidly I brought only a pair of dragons and teams and no flat shoe of any description! Suffice to say the steep stuff went well but I messed up on 3 slabs/walls with my feet popping off all of them. I flashed a couple of hardish ones and should have done better on 2 of the steeper ones only to drop the last hold and have to tick them 2nd/3rd go.

I thought my score was pretty average and I finished in 6th place behind the 4 mentioned earlier and the wildcard from Wales and Cave legend Ding Dong! It was great to see Neil rock up in a pair of old boots with homemade laces and holes in the toes and make it into the final.

The finals were a mix of steep and slabby in the new Downtown sector of the wall. Me and Hoppo were rooting for Neil to take down the British team in a spectacular underdog performance and he did well, running out of time on 2 of the problems and getting 3 bonuses but it wasn't quite enough as Ned took the Men's title by flashing the last problem using a sickening flexible hand to foot splits move to get out of the roof and on to the lip traverse before locking out to the finish.
Dave came a close 2nd after dispatching the brialliant first problem involving a dynamic double handed roof dyno catch and Gaz 3rd, just ahead of James after bonus holds came into play.

In the womens it was very close between Shauna and Leah with Shauna taking it down to number of attempts after they both did 3/4 of the problems. A mention must go to Laura too who made it into the final and then finished in 3rd ahead of a team GB member after crushing the slab problem (that Shauna didn't do!).

I'm looking forward to getting down to some more training tonight with Ged and the others and dissecting what could have gone better and what to work on in future. I was hoping to win the pair of Velcros in the raffle but failed and got a Yorkshire Grit vol 1 guide (if anyone wants it let me know!).

We celebrated in good style after the raffle and went for drinks on Lark Lane with Oscar as he was leaving for Sweden the next morning. This continued on into town and all got a bit bleary with me, Sean, Ged and Hot Dog being the last men standing at around 4am.

Sunday morning in work was not pretty but I came out the other side without being sick so a good end to the weekend!

Getting Reaquainted

2011-04-28T11:51:00.001-07:00

It seemed like an age since I had last ventured to the Cave but having a day off and the offer of an early lift off Mark was too good to refuse!

I've climbed solely indoors of late after returning from Switzerland, working on indoor circuiting and doing a lot of core exercises from the T Randall 20 min floor + 5 min bar routine.

It was nice and peaceful when we arrived and the sun was making it rather pleasant to warm up. There was just one other guy there who had been biviing up on top of the hill and climbing multiple days on in the cave (good effort!).

As part of the regular warmup circuit, I was relieved to find R.A. still steady!

The goal for the day was to see how far back I had gone on In Life after having fell from left wall around November last year.

On the first try, I was amazed to find myself with left hand on the not so wobbly jug/crimp and matching in on to a rather good edge facing the wrong way. As I took out my right toe hook, I went flying off leftwards into the dirt unable to control the swing! I thought it may just be rustiness, so I tried the toe hook removal once more and the same thing happened even though I squeezed as hard as I could. Were all those months of effort now a waste?!

A bit disturbed I went and sat in the sun for a bit in the directors chair and had a chill.

A banana and a moment of inspiration as I recalled a video of Danny going right hand up to the start of R.A. instead of my old left-left again method.

I went back down and climbed through from the back this time getting my left hand on the bottom of the glued jug and getting the splits/right toe hook on. I twisted over and got the top bit with my right hand and rotated right underneath it, feeling a lot more in balance. I relaxed then removed the right toe dragging it into the roof and it killed the swing enough to hold on. I slapped up to catch the intermediate with my right then put my right toe back on and went again for the R.A. start only to slide just off the edge of it.

After a bit of rest I managed to work out about 3 different foot positions for going again to the start of R.A. and tried them all after climbing from the In Life start but kept on just failing on that same move after having powered out a bit earlier than usual.

Instead of being a bit disheartened at going this far back on the full link, I was quite motivated by doing some new moves and knowing I'll definitely be able to get through it next session when fresh and get on to those lovely slopers over the other side of the arch. It's also quite good in that it should remain 8A+ and not get the downgrade, now that it's a fair bit harder to get through. I'm sure the fitness will return in there so the strong period lasts 3 hours instead of 1 and a half and the core work I have been doing should also help for getting the feet across on to left wall when that time comes again.

Looking to this weekend... I'm desperate to get back to the cave asap to put the time in on In Life but being part of the local Climbing Hangar Team probably means I need to show up and enter the Best Of the West comp (seems a bit pointless when half the British Team are coming to win the money but I guess it can be a steep learning curve!)

Sweltering Swizzie

2011-04-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

It's taken a few days to find the motivation to do a trip report as I'm still stuck in the after holiday blues period.

The trip was a bit of a mixed bag with some good problems going down fast whilst others proved to be elusive due to a combination of fatigue/greasy conditions/weakness.

Sun 3rd

The trip started off well with myself and Sean getting a first day sub 15 min tick of Grotte des soupirs (for which I had built a training problem in the crypt at awesome walls that turned out to be far far harder than the actual thing!). It took just as long to do the 7a Vol au Vent next to it.

Mon 4th

The others arrived at our luxurious super villain hideout which overlooked the whole of Bellinzona, up behind the small village of Carasso. It was an epic drive up a winding hill then a walk through a forest including a river crossing to reach the accomodation.

We had another late start and went back to Christianoff. I puntered about on Franks Wild Years with hoppo before realising I was too weak to match the greasy undercut in 25 degree heat so quickly switched focus to XP. I had a tough time on the start until Owen said to start matched on the right undercut instead of trying to pull on wide on both undercuts. It went down a couple of goes later! Me and Mick took about 4 goes to do Harry Spotter which was a cool deadpoint to a crimp off poor footholds and myself, Mark and Sean bailed early down to the cafe only to realise everywhere was closed on a Monday, so headed back the ranch for beer!

Mick stayed out a little longer and managed to crush an 8A+/8B Un ange avec des cornes to the right of La Proue for a decent start to his trip!

Tues 5th

With sweltering temps in Cresciano we headed higher up to Chironico only to find it in direct sunlight and steaming hot.

We warmed up and found partial shade under the Soucoupe roof. I kept failing on the end of Vitruvian Man and then Polish Dave got psyched and flashed it. Mick battled his way up and we moved on.

After spending a while trying to use heel locks on Autopilot, I gave up and dynoed through holding the spectacular swing. Mick did it static and we moved back into the sun to Le Vent Nous Portera. After a bit of bloodshed from the quartz jug, Mick finished it off and I failed to hold the swing back in before calling it a day.

Thurs 7th

We had a well needed rest day on Wednesday and then hit Magic Wood due to the rising temps back in Ticino.

The Woods were full of underground beasts and sponsored wads here for a play before the Milan bouldering world cup.

We pottered about and I took hoppo to Man of Cow. We both failed on this until I remembered how to do the crux and I cleaned the top out for attempts on Master of Cow. I had about 5 redpoints to the crux move but kept failing so we moved on.

Youngy and Hoppo had a mare on some soft touches I showed them so we went to find some gifts! ;)

Youngy crushed Fliegen Erlaubt after a flap on the top and Hoppo got a swift flash ascent.

There was just enough time for a trip down to the river before darkness descended. I had been unable to try Cote de Seshuan last time out due to it having a stream down it but it was prime this time. I worked out the moves for 10 minutes then with energy dwindling pulled it out the bag first go from the start, getting to the rest position and chalking up before holding on to the scary dyno at the end! What a great problem.

Sat 9th

The previous day had proved very unproductive back in Magic Wood doing Octopussy in 2 halves but failing to link. Whilst the others rested I went to Schattental with Lorenzo and Christiano who had come up to stay with us for 2 days. It was 3rd day on but I felt quite psyched climbing with 2 powerhouses and had to represent for Merseyside!

I warmed up with a flash of Chad's bulge which was very pleasant and got the head right for the big slab. We got spanked on some 6c in the heat and got very dehydrated having only 1 litre of water between 3 of us as the other 2 had forgotten to bring any.

Lore and Christiano did a cool looking traverse in the shaded corridor before me and Lore did a short steep 7a+ to the left.

The sun had passed a little further by 2pm, so we moved around to Powerstrips. I thought it looked very flashable so got the psyche levels back up with a re-warm up lap of chad's.

The first move was a pleasant one out to a good blocky sidepull and then the dance began trying to find a good position for the left foot to bring the left hand across the line of many holds. After a foot pop, I swung back in and relocated one that felt ok. I snatched in and caught the crimp perfectly. I pasted the left foot back on lower then launched straight for the good hold at the top and somehow held on! The rest proved an enjoyable stroll up the gigantic slab and only my 2nd 7c flash. Need to do this more often as it saves so much energy! Lore crushed the same sequence but static with some strong locking and then had some fun on the top! ;)

We finished off on a hard 7a up the top end of the boulderfield and went over to Paese for Lore and Christinao to do a nice looking traverse called Bella Gnocca.

The day ended on a perfect note with a cold beer and amazing kebab meal in Biasca before we headed back the house for more beer and wine!

Sun 10th

I felt totally ruined 4th day on having elected to climb at Magic as we weren't going to be going again this trip. I fell off Master of Cow about 7 times at the crux and then once having got through it, with arms melting and hands greasing off. I had to thank Dylan for saving me and also apologise for inadvertently kicking him in the face mid bail.

Not everyone was to be shut down as Mick crushed Sofa Surfer Direct for what was the 4th or so ascent of another 8B.

Polish Dave also made an impressive fast ascent of Octopussy and an animalstic flash of Supernova in near darkness!

Weds 13th

I decided to sack off climbing for 2 days to let my skin and arms recover after getting slowly worse at rock climbing and having a rather poor list of ascents for over a weeks worth of effort.

I felt super energised on my birthday climbing day and got up crazily early, having breakfast and a shower before anyone bar Owen had arisen.

We started off at Nivo Basso and Alta. The warmups were really nice wall climbs with Opus Day being very good indeed.

I then moved on to problem 1 of the hitlist, a short unaesthetic crimpy wall called Kiss Me. I struggled initially till Mike pointed out an obvious toe hook and it went down with a bit of tree dabbing as I tried to flag through, so I did another lap dab free and moved on.

Me and Sean went off and found The Pocket Problem, a cool looking overhanging board which looked piss and very flashable. After brushing the holds I pulled on and moved up into the good left slot only for a foot to pop and I was back on the ground, what a punt! After having a word I pulled back on, got the slot again and jumped out right to the arete which is a great move. I worked the right thumb in to the slot and pinched the hell out of it. Once my body was right underneath I brought the left hand into the other pocket before rocking out a good rail and topping it out.

Sean didn't like the pockets so we moved uphill to the Alphane Moon. This looked great with a bit of a scary match move over a block. It did look very doable so again we opted for the flash attempt. I got through the first sections feeling strong and got out to the greasy left hand hold but was way too sweaty to match in. After chalking up I pulled on matched and did the last 2 moves ok but decided it wasn't going to happen today in the heat, so we moved back downhill to Ping Pong Boulder. I struggled to work out an efficient sequence and managed to bruise my left elbow falling on to the sketchy block to the left of the line. Luckily a wandering Beast from the East popped up with extra mats and a camera in hand. With the extra spotter and matting I found the motivation and sketched up it with a bit of grunting! 3rd 7C in the bag and it wasn't even lunch time :)

We watched the others for a bit then Youngy drove me back over to Le Vent Nous Portera. I warmed up on the top out moves and swung about a bit then had two goes slapping out to the lip but kept getting blinded by the direct sun. Mark helpfully stood in line with the holds with a pad aloft to block it out and on the 3rd go I got the hold perfectly, sorted the feet and launched to the quartz jug, my feet swung out violently and I held on for dear life giving it everything I had left. I held the swing back in and casually matched before rocking out to glory. It was proving a good day with the earlier session and now a Nicole classic in the bag!

Me and Mark went over to Souvenir roof so he could try the 7a on the right and I got drawn into trying the first moves of Souvenir which felt ok but I found it hard to get past the sloper on the lip as my left leg was too long to tension the bicycle.

We shot off before it went dark and went to Grotto Del Nando's for a birthday pizza and beers.

Mick, Owen and Dave turned up fashionably late as Mick had decided to stay out and spot Dave on Boogalagga only to boot up and then climb it within 2 hours... 3 8B's in 2 weeks in the heat!

Fri 15th

After realising the benefits of rest days on a trip, I took Thursday off and put all my eggs in 1 basket to achieve on the last day. As with the last trip to Switzerland, the last day pressure to achieve proved a strong motivator.

We warmed up in area Paese and after almost deciding to just circuit in the heat, I went over with Sean to Souvenir Roof. This time Dave was on hand to dispense some alternate beta. I spent about an hour working different sequences until I found one which worked. A couple of false starts and I had began to give up hope as it was scorching hot and my skin was thinning.

I took a proper rest and gave it one last go where everything just clicked and I hit the holds and positions perfectly. It felt super solid and I only began to panic when I was reaching through to the good hold above the slopers on the lip, I let out a scream and got it right in the middle and pulled through with a wave of relief.

Before finishing we went over to Dr Med Dent which I got close to flashing only to slide off the greasy lip. The reserves were depleted and I had another 2 failures before drinking a coolpresso, eating a banana and having another 'last go for sure'. With a bit of sugar and plenty of liquid chalk I pulled it out the bag. It was a nice problem to end the trip on as the walk out was very short and we were soon back at base beer in hand!

It all proved too much for Beastio aka UKB's most puntered so he spent the last week sleeping on a pad (apart from rising like Lazarus to flash Powerstrips and go back to his sickbed!)

Back in the Pool

Upon getting back after a fairly long drive, I had the shortest of rest periods before beginning team training with Ged and the others at the Climbing Hangar. I turned up too early and got psyched to train on the board so had a 2 hour woody session before doing the intensive 1 hour session with the others. I felt totally ruined on Tuesday morning but after sleeping in late I had to do the 20 minute continuous Randall core workout straight out of bed before eating as I was off to work!

I think relative failure in achieving what I set out to do on our trip has proved a good motivational tool as I awoke this morning still aching but psyched for more, so fitted in another intense core/pullups session before opening the shop.

There is a comp at the hangar at the end of April and I am in pretty poor shape indoors, so need to pack the volume in to a short space of time in the hope of making some gains before then. The short term goal is not be a total punt come the day!

Normal Service is resumed!

2011-03-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

After a good few trips out culminating on a swift ascent of the Lotus, I was expecting to polish off yet more unfinished business over the last few days but rather than prolonging this perfect prep for swiss purple patch... it was back to the usual!

Sat 12th March

It was just a day trip on Sat and I picked Fish Head up from the Wirral en route to the majestic Orme.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves for a fair while, then Ru turned up along with the brothers log.

To sum up the session, I puntered up on the handswap bit on Broken Sam about 5 times then moved on to Pilgrim.

I sacked off all the heel sourcery I had been told about and just got my hands as far along as possible before dragging a right foot under the roof, cutting loose and doing a pull up. This kills most of the swing and you stab a right toe across, lock to a sloper and then lock deeper to get to the slot (all off the very greasy left crimpy pinch). After figuring out this new method, I managed to get across the arch a few times but had nothing left on Rockatrocity after the pockets. Small gains = long term victories I guess!

Dylog was looking beastly strong on the Greenheart and if he can keep getting down on a regular basis, I can see him getting it ticked off this year, which would be a fine effort!

Folog was mainly trying everything but mostly Trigger Cut, as was Ru trying to do laps and then link in the Halfway house start (which looks pretty desperate for someone of his height, good job he's an animal!)

Mon 14th March

Me and Sean made our way over to Anston to meet up with Mick and Tony and turned up fashionably late around 1pm instead of 11.30. Mick was busy getting the beastly pair of ned and dave on his white light variations to get some grade confirmations and making the Tenayas stick like glue to seemingly invisible heel hooks.

Tony got me and Sean to try out some of his Tenaya range as we warmed up over on Ebola buttress.

After doing some of the easier stuff, i did a quick retro flash of Alpha using the laceup Tenayas which felt pretty good if a little stiff compared to the Green Hornets that have been in use the last 2 weeks.

After Sean showed me the way on the start to Resonate (the low end 7C+ to the left of Ebola), I contrived to punter the last move about 15 times on the redpoint until the skin got too destroyed in the pockets and the left bicep gave up pulling! I got a full 3 fingers on the top hold but slid off not being able to hang on enough for a match, so hopefully it will go down next trip.

We moved over to Duke's buttress only to find it strangely wet from meltwater. Mick was a bit tired, so we called it a day and me and Sean decided to make a mad dash to Raven Tor.

We managed to get lost down the wrong roads and valley for about 30 minutes until we fluked our way there. A savage warmup on Too Hard for Mark Leach and then straight on to Ben's Roof. I had tried it a while ago with Ken and John M and had fell off trying to stab my left foot across on the flash. I got the crux moves done again through on to the sidewall and had a 2 minute rest. It was now fully dark, so Sean had to guide me with a headtorch. I got through all the bottom and into the kneebar ok, brushed the right hand dry and got the good crimp. I bumped the left hand up to another undercut and got a bicycle in and reached back for the thin slot. I got hold of it but only on the edge as an open crimp and not into the slot. It was absolute agony as I felt it pressing through my already thin tips and had to let go. I had one more redpoint in the dark and ran out of steam on the same move.

Instead of staying over we decided to make a trip to Llandudno and sleep in the van on Marine Drive. In a bid to get there in good time on clear roads, I was a bit over enthusiastic on the gas and we got pulled over on the M56 to be issued with a fine and 3 points, slightly devastating, I felt like a criminal!

By the time we had bought some beers and croissants for breakfast and parked up on the Marine Drive, the chippies were all closed, so we had to make do with a sketchy KFC meal.

Tues 15th March

We had a suprisingly good kip in White Beauty and had a lie in till about 10.30am. A coffee and civilised shit in Dudno were followed by the purchase of a very scal-chic Umbro England polo shirt for a flim... and we were ready for action!

We warmed up all alone and I got back on the redpoint on Broken Sam, only to fail around the wet handswap hold which was not only condensed out but in the rain too. The best go was about redpoint 4, where I swapped hands and got out to the right hand pinch only for my left hand to fire off the sloper claw.

By this time the cave was full of wads but the super beast of the day award had to go to Dobbin who dispatched Trigger Cut with consumate ease and did another lap for the cameras to make sure it were no fluke. ;)

I put a bit more time in on Pilgrim and even had a very unproductive play on Louis Armstrong which didn't last too long. Going to need to hit the gym and grow some biceps for this one.

Training for Swizzy pt 2

2011-03-09T06:29:00.001-08:00

There hasn't been any 'training' to speak of, mainly climbing!

With the good weather carrying over from the previous week, we got out another couple of times.

Sat 5th March

Myself, Sean and Darren from the Hangar went to the S Lakes as it looked promisingly dry with a bit of cloud cover, which meant no furnace-like conditions on the Shelterstone Face.

We had a good warmup on the Red Wall and hit the main block.

I gave Darren a tour of some of the easier lines on there and warmed up for Wheelbarrow by climbing the Groove and the Pit problem start, although I found this hard! Sean pointed out that I put my right foot too far around, which was making it harder.

With a rest and this advice in mind, I put my heel much closer up to my hand and hey presto, the move felt much easier. I got past the crossunder and 1 arm unwind into the jug out right then climbed to the lip only for my right hand to fire off.

Sean then waltzed along it with a bit of a grunt to top out. I was suitably inspired and booted up once again. The start went well and before I knew it, I was topping out with energy to spare... which bodes well for Pacman!

Sadly my right shoulder felt quite heavy/clunky so I stopped immediately. The slightly violent nature of the slap move was obviously not ideal on a still dodgy shoulder.

Sean finally did Vitruvian Man and it was no longer a shit problem but 'the best 7C I've ever done'!

We then went over to Woodwell and showed Darren some more Gaskins test pieces and he got a few of the v3/4's in the bag before we packed up and headed the Hangar.

Mon 7th - Tues 8th March

I got the Hangar early only to find Ged bleary eyed making coffee and Hoppo asleep on the couch after a late night of setting.

Ged couldn't locate his car so we smuggled him to Wales in the van after Neil and Joe had said it was glorious sunshine in the pass.

This proved correct and after a brief coffee stop at V12, we went the Roadside and retro flashed the classics.

Moving down to Jerry's we found Rich Ames and friends having a session on the direct finish to Jerry's up some slopey looking gastons/pinches.

Sean got Bus Stop finished off after having puntered the top out last year and Ged worked on Jerry's. I did a lap of Bus Stop to stay warm and fell off the top of jerry's in a brain freeze moment. We then headed up to the Wavelength.

Ged flashed King of Drunks with the heavy beta and also Lordy Lordy!

Back down the hill and I rewarmed up on the Meadow Roof before tackling the Lotus. 5 times I made it to the fingerswap edge only to grease off in the slightly damp conditions.

It went dark and we went back to Beris, had a nice meal and a couple pints, then dropped Ged off at the roundabout.

Me and Hoppo spent a rather chilly night in the van in -6! I definitely need to get a warmer sleeping bag as I was in full thermals and a hoody by the morning.

A breakfast/shower/shit combo at Pete's set us up perfectly for another day in the Pass and we did a brief warmup before I once again dragged Sean up the hill back to the Lotus.

He lay down trying not to be sick and I got really psyched to finish things.

Redpoint number 1 looked like it would be it as I swapped hands on the edge and reached for the pinch out right only to have my foot pop. Devastating but progress!

Next go was looking sketchy as I barely switched hands but after getting out right and a bit of screaming it was done.

And so the week of crush came to an end.

I was relieved the shoulder was ok after tweaking it a bit at Trowbarrow and I'll probably have to avoid Pacman/Iron Man till it gets a bit stronger as the right hand slap is a bit of a no go.

A few rest days and theraband should do the trick this week and I'll maybe go try to finish off other business this Saturday.

Gearing up for Switzerland

2011-03-04T00:51:00.001-08:00

It's been a great last couple of weeks in terms of getting outside on rock.

Training

After Lorenzo's visit to Liverpool I got really psyched for fingerboarding/campussing again as I could see how weak I was in comparison and that there was much work to do. The Hangar recently put up another 3 Beastmakers spaced apart like campus rungs and I've had a couple of sessions campussing up the 45-35-35's and the small crimps too which feels like a good strength builder having to lock them down and be accurate to the next. I'm finding the 2 finger sloping dishes quite comfortable again on front and middle 2 so I'll keep putting in a session or 2 a week on these exercises to get the fingers ready for boning down in Chironico.

Back to the rock...

After puntering up on the Terrace and worrying I was going to be massively weak on the forthcoming trip, I decided to get back on things I had failed on in the past.

It started off with a trip about a week ago to the Bowderstone with Sean. Everywhere was a bit grim in the mist/fog but the ladder face was salvageable with a lot of chalkballing/towels/chalk block pasting then fast climbing before grease offs.

I managed to finish off some good problems like Move Man, Ears of Perception, Inaudible Vaudeville and Picnic Sarcastic direct all in a couple of tries save for Inaudible which was fairly wet and felt nails even to pull on but got done with a bit of overpowering. Sean did Picnic sitter and I dropped the last move on a very wet Impropa Opera LH.

Tuesday 1st

Fast forward 1 week and we headed out on a gloriously sunny and cold Tuesday to Trowbarrow to try finish Wheelbarrow/Iron Man but it was like being in an Oven. It was tops off and sweating on the mats! I managed a desperate repeat of Vitruivan Man but we kept greasing off on the longer stuff. We went down the road to find shade and conditions were amazing at Woodwell middle.

I practiced the hardest 6a+ top out in the world (Not Bad Dave) then went to practice the bicyle move I use to slap up into the starting hold of the stand. As soon as I put a tiny bit of weight on the Right foot under the roof a massive chunk of rock crashed down on to the pad luckily missing my legs! The first thought was horror of wrecking a bit of a classic but fortunately The left handholds were all still there. I found a new foot dink on solid rock and could still do the move up past the lip. After 1 standard punter go with a foot pop. I rested up and got it done. Relief! Sean did well and fell off 2 hand moves from victory. He tried again but couldn't quite do the 6a+ (even in isolation! ;))

Wednesday 2nd

We planned a 2 day trip back to the Bowderstone to settle some old scores and sped North in White Beauty on another lovely day.

The plan was to wear offensively bright E9 pants and cause some destruction (of the climbing achievement variety).

We warmed up doing a great little dinosaur back arete opposite XXXX and continued on the Crack then Picnic stand.

I got psyched to try Inaudible sitter as the starting holds were pinchable without getting wet hands and proceeded to flash it with only 1 sketchy cut loose on the last move. The power seemed to be turned on as Sean cooly dispatched Inaudible Vaudeville and we moved pads under Impropa Opera.

Sean was trying the righthand start and I was over on the left, as we strangely found each others' starts most awkward.

After watching a video and altering my sequence, I no longer had to drop my right hand into the terrible sidepull/pinch and stab left hand again to the crimp you lock the last move off. A lovely crossover move and then a twist through to gain the same hold proved much better and after hitting the small intermediate, the last hold thankfully proved to be a jug. It felt piss!

We did some heavy maintenance on a couple of the holds which were still damp and Sean then climbed the right hand start. Not satisfied, we then swapped around and after a go or two managed to get up it from the other side.

Feeling on a roll I shifted the pads leftwards and decided to try the visually appealing line of Grand Opera.

The first go, I caught the groove hold and held on whilst trying to work out where to put my feet for about 10 seconds before sliding off the right hand.

After resting and chin stroking, I had a brainwave and pulled back on, catching the move, getting a high left heel near my chest and locking in to match the rail. I cut loose and got a foot back on the starting hold before stabbing out left and getting a good but very painful incut crimp before bouncing a right heel under my right hand and locking in again to gain a big pinch intermediate. I went again over my head to a chalky mess where it was nigh on impossible to distinguish where the hold was and I crimped whatever I could feel (which was truly terrible). I hung about not knowing what to do with my left foot and slapped to an ok looking left sidepull before sliding off.

That was as good as it got on Grand Opera as I felt a bit powered out upon reaching the same point a couple of goes later. I feel it is way harder than Impropa and am puzzled as to it being 7C in the new 7&8's list.. maybe Impropa is 7A+?

We finished off with Sean almost doing Picnic Direct, then I puntered up on wet holds on Coming up for Air before doing it 2nd go with a bit of drying. What a great flowing problem.

Thurs 3rd

We chose to make good use of our current form and the dry sunny weather and headed Cavewards.

There were a couple of geezers there when we arrived who had just got back from Spain not looking overly motivated for a shady polished cave and we warmed up with the whole place to ourselves.

I had bought a pair of 5.10 Hornet's the night before and thought I would wear them to warm up on old familiar circuit problems.

Rather than being a mere warming up shoe for the day, I kept them on all session as they were immensly comfortable and destroyed all in their path.

All the lip problems were ticked off before a lap of Rockatrocity and Cave Life short. The last time I was here, I had fell off the last move of Lou Ferrino direct without the pocket out right, just before getting multiple shoulder strains.

The 3 month break and rehab seemed to do the job as I got through to the rail on Lou F missing holds and cutting loose but feeling stronger than ever. I let go and let the blood come back to the fingers as it was pretty damn chilly.

A brief 3 minute rest and I crushed lou F sans pocket to the finish with a bit of a scream to get my fingers in that most hated of slots which brings so much joy!

As I moved over to work on the Pilgrim L->R arch moves, Sean puntered up Lou Ferrino, sliding out of the wet pocket out right.

After redrying it just before pulling on, he got it done for a bit of a nemesis tick. Team Crush was still on a roll :)

We stuck around a little longer giving some beta to a couple of guys from the Peak, Nick and Nick I think? (I have terrible memory retention for anything which isn't a sequence) who were over on a roadtrip for the week and they got some good classics in the bag before we left.

It was a good 3 day spree of action and the first time I've felt strong and uninjured on anything since last Ocotober. Hopefully we can get out a couple of times a week before the trip to Ticino and achieve something between us.

I'll aim to take a week off after the Climbing Hangar comp on the 18th March, to get a decent rest followed by some light volume sessions before the trip to keep the skin good.

I learnt from the last episode of injury and Holger/Pete Chadwick's advice, that you are most susceptible to picking up injuries when in a purple patch so fingers crossed the shoulders are almost mended!

Si's Birthday and the Pneumatic Arm

2011-02-17T01:53:00.000-08:00

It's been a great last week just gone, with a trip up to Northumberland for Si's birthday followed by some plastic and grit action.

Fatneck's B'day bash - Fri 11th

Despite the weather we managed to achieve the act of touching dry rock on all 3 days.

Friday was a small affair as myself and Sean accompanied Andy, Bex and Si to Heckley. It's probably not everyones idea of a fallback option but there were a couple of hidden gems amongst the choss.

The dyno problems on the far right were good fun as was the low prow to the left which had numerous links and eliminates.

The arete and direct version were superb and the thin ribline on the far left of the crag had a great sequence of moves to hit the jug up top.

The evening was a lively event with a lot of booze consumed and another 10 or so Miserysiders joining us.

Sat 12th

We awoke to some sketchy low mist so took the opportunity to have a long lie in and a leisurely breakfast only for Owen to announce everyone was going and me, Sean and Psyche were still in a state of undress making cereal.

We were rushed out of the gite and all bombed it down to Back Bowden to find it a bit minging with a lot of water pools below the roof action.

The plan was changed for Kyloe In and we all got there eventually, some of us meeting a camoflaged sniper in the woods en route to the crag!

There was a lot of dry rock balanced out by damp holds and humid conditions. Me and John puntered up the Yorkshireman stab to the slot a few times sliding off the right undercut and I also nearly severed a few fingertips on the 2nd to last move of Crouching Tiger so sacked it off.

Me and John did manage to get Jocks done, which climbs really well and was unfinished business from 4 years ago!

Pete and John did Hitchikers and there were a few ascents of Monty Python's Direct.

Sun 13th

I felt a lot better after only having 1 beer the night before and with epic rain on it's way we got out early and straight to Back Bowden where we did a furious warmup on a boulder before the skies opened.

We fled under the Harry potter roof and myself, John and Sean worked on Severus Snape and Harry P. With a monumental effort and power scream I managed to get Severus Snape climbed but Harry Potter felt about 2 grades harder again (I assume something has broken off or it is the worlds hardest 7a+ alongside Talons Aiguilles at Franchard Sablons!).

Pete, myself and John all managed to climb something under a roof in bitterly cold wind and rain called Low and Hard, then everyone gave up and went to the Depot in Leeds.

Tues 15th

Lorenzo was over in Merseyside to crush some culture as well as rock. After climbing Rockatrocity on Sunday on his 8th day on, he had a well deserved rest day around the City Centre on Monday.

I was going to take us over to the cave or S Lakes on Tuesday but the weather wasn't too promising, so we ended up down the Hangar having a long circuit session on the reds/yellows/blacks/whites before heading to the wood.

Lorenzo went from looking a bit tired on the plastic to an absolute machine on the BM2k, dispatching a +30 seconds 45 sloper hang to 1 arming the slopers and the small edge as if it were a warmup routine!

Having just witnessed all of this, me and Tom had to make an effort, so we managed to hang the 45's for a respectable time and I campussed the 1-4.5 distance off the 45's to the rung above on both arms. We stopped the clock after an easy 4 hour session.

In the evening we destroyed a lot of food between the 3 of us:

Starter = prunes wrapped in Bacon with red wine
Main = Fillet Steak with broccoli, carrots and potato wedges roasted with red onions and garlic and more wine
Pudding = A 2000 calorie cake for 6 shared between 3, that had the same density as dark matter

Wed 16th

Considering yesterday's session me and Lore didn't feel too bad and headed out on the grit with Merseyside's strongest double act (the silver hustler and Preston's greatest exporter of guns).

We drove into thick cloud and dampness at Burbage and turned straight back to Hathersage for a coffee whilst the skies opened up to glorious sunshine and a bit of a breeze.

We warmed up on Banana Finger and the Direct which took me several attempts and then another 3 to do the Banana Reverse whilst my dodgy shoulders took a while to get going.

There was an appointment with the Terrace.

Dave had climbed it quite recently so we had fresh strongman beta. John had almost climbed it a couple weeks back but had kept puntering the move to the slot. I had tried it 3+ years ago and not been able to do a single move. Lorenzo had just come along to destroy.

After realising I could do all the moves in about 10 mins it was time to achieve.

We watched John breeze up it and then Lore glide up it, before totally overpowering the slot move with a dismayingly strong pneumatic lock!

Whilst the others stood about getting cold I climbed several times to the move into the big slot only to miss it or slip off! I battled on, failed on 1 try after getting my fingers in the slot only to inexplicably take my hand back out, then split my left index. There was 1 more decent try climbing it on my middle 2 before I gave up and vowed to return.

I was really happy for the others to get it done especially lore with the holiday trip pressure and a bit gutted I couldn't complete the team ascent.

The others had a play on Blind Fig as it went a bit dark and damp and we headed into Sheff for a swift pint before dropping off Lore and heading back to Liverpool.

It was great to get out a lot last week and not have too much shoulder trouble. I think they just need nursing along until Switzerland with lots of volume sessions and hopefully I'll be able to try the same problems as Owen and Sean..etc without hearing more crunching and being in massive pain!

Limbo

2011-01-25T15:22:00.000-08:00

I'm currently experiencing the most frustrating part of my short climbing 'career' to date.

It started with a strained rotator cuff in mid December which I have been nursing well till this day.

I did the initial rest and then rebuilt the strength using recommeneded exercises utilising resistance and therabands. it became a lot more stable and I began light climbing about 3.5 weeks after the initial pain.

I gradually upped the intensity from traversing to step wall v8's over the course of 2 weeks and was feeling great for the last 2 sessions or so.

Thinking I was in the clear I had an easy session last Thursday just doing V0-V4 volume before resting for Trowbarrow on Saturday and I was struck down once again with what feels like a shoulder impingement. This time it is in my good shoulder!

I thought it could just be a trapped nerve so stopped climbing and rested. I attempted to climb Saturday and had to stop after doing a warmup and repeating an easy 6c.

Since then it has been fine to move in every direction bar lifting my arm straight up ahead (in front). I did nothing Sunday and Monday and began movement exercises and v light theraband today and it doesn't hurt at all during this but feels kind of heavy/trapped on the front side when I just try to lift ahead and a bit creaky.

It's most frustrating and I'd love to know whether it is something serious as the left shoulder was. There was no immediate sign or event which triggered it so I'm not sure if it's just a trapped nerve causing this discomfort. I'm terrified to injure it badly but don't want to sit here doing nothing when there are trips to Northumberland in Feb and Switzerland in April.

I guess the most obvious explanation is that it has been caused by overcompensating for the opposite shoulder and needs a rest.

After taking nearly a month off with the other shoulder its pretty shit thinking about another month off whilst this once gets sorted! Looks like 2011 will be as unproductive as last year :(

Excitement!

2011-01-04T01:31:00.000-08:00

Everyone in Liverpool I climb with is looking forward to this weekend as it marks the opening of a new dedicated bouldering centre right here on the edge of town!

We no longer have to dread being rained off back to the step wall/crypt again :D

Hopefully see plenty of people down there for the grand opening of phase 1.

As with the depot, there will be a phase 2 opening/event sometime near the end of Feb/beginning of March with a gigantic extension full of training facilities and an epic roof.

Here is the website with some details/directions:

http://www.theclimbinghangar.com/

and the obligatory facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/The-Climbing-Hangar-Liverpool/182112671799297

YYFY!

2010

2010-12-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

Was pretty much the year of injuries!

The year started off pretty quietly with a few days out on the grit ticking some memorable problems like Bens Groove, Ju Ju Club, Matts Roof..etc and March brought a nice chilled trip to font with Mark and Michael.

I managed to break a grade boundary in font dragging my arse up a 7C in font which was a good mental breakthrough.

I then suffered multiple left arm/bicep/elbow pains through the early stages of the year and went off to Font again with low expectations only to have a great trip pathing Aerodynamite, Biceps Mou, Onde de Choc, Arabesque and the brilliant Sale Gosse.

I thought a good vein of form would be ahead but the arm pains soon returned and 1 good day at Anston Stones was the only memorable day out throughout the rest of the spring and summer.

I traded in the arm pains for a finger injury at the end of July which lingered for a month and a relaxing trip to Dartmoor seemed to help get things moving again just doing a lot of volume and visiting some great little venues such as Combeshead Tor.

The injury was still there and my finger swelled up all the time. Mark also picked up a finger injury not long after, so we changed plans from magic wood to font and it turned out to be a good shout as we got lots more done.

Despite the heat I slayed the long term nemesis of Berezina with a subtle adjustment and ticked plenty more classics such as Ange Naif, Bleaus Art, Marginal Droit, Modulor...etc

After getting back from the trip, the injuries seemed to subside and I finally started to get some problems finished off which were long overdue.

In Hell was finally realised and I had broken a grade boundary for the 4th year running even if its a pretty soft one! Cave Life went down a week later and Oppotrocity soon after. I was feeling strong but lacking a bit of fitness, so In Life evaded me falling off on Left Wall a couple of times.

I thought it was still on for the year, when I had that rather bad day out a couple of Saturdays ago, as the wobbly block was ripped from the roof of the cave and I injured my rotator cuff to write off the remainder of 2010!

I guess it has definitely been a year of ups and downs and one can only pray that 2011 features less injury and more success! I think the font 8B pipedream is a bit out of reach until I rebuild my body, get stronger, fitter and spend time on hard problems to build up some momentum and a performance pyramid.

For now the script is to keep therabanding, do some Cardio and try to not eat all the pies! I'm hoping to touch resin within the next 2 weeks if it continues to heal at the current rate. Keeping the years long term plans in mind, I'll definitely be nursing it with the utmost care as Lorenzo commented! I hope to become as big a beast on the elastic as Walter and Doris below...

I wish anyone bothering to read through this tripe has a great Christmas weekend and I'll see you all out next year (provided you are visiting the cave ;))

Triple dismay

2010-12-13T09:22:00.000-08:00

This Saturday two terrible events coincided as the wobbly block got pulled out of the roof down the cave as we were over in Leeds at the comp. This means my close efforts on finishing In Life are down the pan for now but for more than this reason alone...

To compound this news which travelled to us post haste via Andy... I put in a rather poor effort in the Depot comp finishing about 11th and injuring my left shoulder in an attempt to climb two problems which may have got me into the final.

I was on the last move of the red on the barrel wall pressing my left arm out to get my left foot up high under it in order to cross to the finishing hold, when I felt/heard a disturbing crunching sound. I let go instantly and then tentatively moved my arm around thankful it was still moving ok in all directions.

I decided to try the yellow to the right and got to pressing out the last move on that too but my left arm was really hurting and I had to admit defeat.

48 hours later and I have a very weak shoulder. I can lift my arm straight in front but not very well to the side where I get halfway and the pain becomes too much. it hurts if I run and sneeze, so all in all a bit worrying!

The timing could have been worse if I had an imminent trip but I won't be able to make use of the new van I'm getting on Wednesday for a good while yet :(

Hopefully Super Physio Matty D can give me some sound advice this week and I can begin the slow process of rehab. Not had this injury before so totally unsure of when it will be back at full range of motion/strength. A winter of walking and slabs could be on the cards!

Out the game...

The Underground hustler

2010-12-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

It was a most busy day today as myself, Matt and Sean joined another 15 or so people in matting out most of parisellas and spending a large portion of the day training/failing!

There was however one boy, fuelled by a £9 chippie takeout and plenty of coca cola from the night before, barely awake from 4 hours of sleep... ready to step up to the plate.

Sean dispatched Pit of Hell without breaking a sweat and then breezed along Broken Heart before almost making it a triple takedown with a good attempt on Lou F.

As for myself and Matt...

Matt was still coming through the other side of Friday nights party which went well into Saturday morning/afternoon and it was impressive he made it out the car and on to the rock.

If there is one type of climbing totally not his style then it would be slopey compression with heels/toehooks so he did well tackling it head on working cave life/lou F and then broken heart. It'd be scary to see him combine stronger arms/compression with his legendary fingers of steel and unleash it on the world!

I had an ok session managing to get both hands on to left wall from In Life start only to collapse in a heap as my left arm had nothing left. (I was locked in the press off the arch trying to regrip the wide left pinch on left wall for about 5 seconds or more and couldn't feel it, so just attempted the right hand cross under anyway and failed upon grabbing it).

The next redpoint ended with my hands sliding off the two slopers trying to get feet on so I tapped out and started trying Lou F sans pocket/Full Circle and Greenheart. Didn't quite get the undercut pinch on LFSP and managed to do Full circle to the finish from a move in but the first move is by far the crux, so hopefully I can fluke this sometime soon!

There is the possiblity of a couple trips this week coming, so hopefully I can get another little tick in the lifetime quest to tick the book.

Winter wanderings

2010-12-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

With all this white shit taking a firm grip of the Eastern edges and the S Lakes being particularly sketchy, we have been continuing our visits to the majestic Orme that rarely ceases to give a productive session.

Thursday 25th Nov

Myself, Sean, Mark and Joe hit the Orme and it was suprisingly warmer than Monday's session. A lot of stuff was wet so the warmup was a bit trickier this time, with Rockatrocity being problem number 2 or 3! I did Cave Life short and was then ready to get on Oppotrocity again. The shoulders needed a couple of stretches over to the 2nd pocket to get warm and as soon as I got the backhand to the flake I took it down. Not sure if it's 8a but it's harder than RA and quite well suited being shouldery moves involving lots of foot clamping/toe hooking.

I managed to fall off with a foot on left wall from the start of In Life a couple of times then tried the arch moves in the opposite direction to keep warm. I wasn't getting very far on this, so decided to just try something harder again!

So I got on Louis Armstrong...

I couldn't work out the first move but got close going right hand out to a small sloping edge and tried to drop in the left hand clamping the feet in various positions. The crux slap felt impossible without just stepping on to the ground as the foot position didn't feel at all obvious (from getting home later I realised both Danny and nacho step their right foot out wide and use the hips a lot to generate some momentum) I could do the drop in match on the undercuts and climbed the problem to the finish from holding the slap out position (doing the left hand drop in and then to the finish). It was good fun to do some new moves and now that I know how fierce the first and crux move are, I can try and do some training before the next visit. If I can do it within the next 3 years I'll be happy! Maybe it can be done in less time if I really want it enough to train specifically?

I 'warmed down' trying the Greenheart connection from the Lou F press off the ramp and managed to do the undercut match twice in near darkness, with the right foot staying on becoming very low percentage! I nearly got across to the break only to fire out the gopping fingerjug on BH. Keen to put more time in on this section next year once other business is taken care of.

We got back to the wall in the evening and instead of a relaxing cuppa, we got stuck in and had a further 2 hour climb on the 45 board getting burned off by Shauna. She was looking scarily strong and crushing moves I was struggling to do. I'll have to get back on them when fresh and see how much work needs doing!

Thursday 2nd Dec

The forecast was grim for a lot of the North and East, so we went up high and into the icy winds on top of the Little Orme to seek out classic Welsh desperation. We were not to be disappointed with the fairly hardcore buttress of Caveman.

No number of starjumps, sprints or hand gripper exercise could summon blood to my extremeties, so I gave up and booted up into a super tight pair of freezing dragons (which were my comfy shoe for the day).

We did what we thought was Floppy's reach, realised it went right then did the proper version, which features quite a nice move through a pinch.

The next warmup problem was Patch's problem, a v6 that felt a little stiff for the grade where you cross to a lovely 3 finger pocket, then lock miles to deadpoint a dish and try and cram 3 fingers in to this, get the right toe on a smear, grab a sidepull, then slap to victory. It took about 2 or 3 goes to work out the foot positioning and I did it with a big drop knee that would have dismayed Dave 'Face on climbing' Pinnington!

We got shutdown on the 2 v7's to the right, so just moved over to Caveman.

After all of us struggling on the start moves, John pulled it out the bag and repeated it. I was ready to give up after getting shut down by the frostnip taking hold of my feet but manned up, went for a run around the top and the blood came back!

After just about latching the first move to the backhand, I locked with all that I had and grasped the sidepull, then sketched to the finish which was all captured in glorious technicolour.

Hoppo looked like he might die if we didn't leave, so we escaped out the wind and drove to Tremeirchion.

Photo courtesy of Chris Doyle

I'd never been to Tremeirchion before and the magnificent wave of high quality lime looked amazing from the layby. It was like a little bit of swiss surrounded by blanket white snow. The uphill approach was nowhere near as arduous as the one to Caveman but was fairly hard-going up the steep hill wading through knee deep snow.

The re-warm up was on a cool v5 to the left which started low on big jugs and bust up to sidepulls/pinches and laybacked some good holds to a highish finish.

I struggled to see the holds at first on 36 chambers but after John had pointed them out and given me a bit of a sequence, I gave it a very psyched crush attempt. Crossing over to the pinch involved boning a sharp index finger crimp and then tensioning past it until it became more positive as I stuck my right foot across and locked it in. I managed to feel in balance for a second and locked to the right hand crimp which was thankfully positive. The left toe was bumped up and I slapped up to what I thought was the sloper only to go too far high and left and slid off. I jumped up and down to get a view from the floor and realised going slightly right was key so had a rest and tried again.

The 2nd go started like the first, getting through the pinch and snatching the crimp. I popped to the sloper and this time it was miles better. I realised the drop in was now the crux and squeezed juice from the rock as I grabbed it with my left cutting loose and holding on with a bit of a scream! I got the toe on to where John had pointed out and set up for the high jug edge... made a throw upwards with my right and dragged over the edge of it back down to the mats! Devastated.

Sadly, that was as good as it got with arms and skin all failing at the same time as the sharp right start hold took its toll and the pinch felt glassier as temps dropped. Definitely one I will be back for as well as the aesthetic looking grooveline to the right.

Another Nemesis in the bag

2010-11-23T03:15:00.000-08:00

It has been a good week since the previous Roche abbey visit. I've managed to get in 3 campus sessions and a lot of core work + climbing on the 45 board.

I'm starting to notice an improvement in body tension from the last few weeks of climbing on a board again and striving to avoid using drop knees/toe hooks/heels..etc

The weakest links at the moment are definitely my creaky fingers and slightly strained left bicep (which is fine when climbing). I had a short beastmaker session on Friday morning and it definitely felt on the edge, so I cut it short and just did more corewoirk instead.

Sunday 21st Nov

We were going to head to the South Lakes and myself and Sean got very excited for Wheelbarrow and Iron Man only for Owen to change the plan to Rotherham. I was partially worried about another shutdown on Ebola and the South Lakes meant avoiding the issue, which was why it was quite appealing.

It was a good venue for Mark and little Hoppo as they hadn't been before so there were some good 7a-7b ticks to be had. We met Tony at the carpark and walked in to the wave area which was drier than we were expecting.

A brief warmup included getting Twenty Four Point Nine done first try today which is a nice sloper traverse into the finish of Alpha at around 7b. Then it was back to Ebola. It was a bit wetter than last weekends session, so I wasn't too hopeful of success.

I worked out how to do the finish and changed both my foot and hand sequence yet again on the bottom section due to a lot of the footholds being wet and to avoid using the wet crimp out right before the pinch.

Fast forward about 2-3 hours later and I finally puntered my way up to holding the swing off the crossover without spinning off. The crimps at the finish were wet but I managed to get the heel on and crossover to the finish of Resonate and then cross under to match praying for my hand not to fire off.

It's such a great problem with each move being unique and hard enough to make it a fight to the end. It would be nice to find it in perfect dry conditions just to enjoy it a little more!

We moved on to Roche Abbey to finish off and myself and Owen had a play on Fallen Idol ss. The pull on was ok and I could get the right hand crimp well only to slide off it trying to match due to the rock getting very damp. The stand up still felt desperate but conditions were far from good. This nemesis will have to wait till next time.

Monday 22nd Nov

Me and Mark hit Tesco early doors and picked up a Christmas double deal on the Krispy Kremes (so we got 24 for £12!). We then picked up Sean and got over to the Wirral to Mike's for about 10.45. We tried to ring but got no answer so knocked on the door to be informed by his mum that he was still asleep! We remarkably got away with Mike onboard at 11 and headed into Llandudno to get a coffee and hit the Orme which was covered in beautiful rays of sun (which seemed to disappear 5 minutes after we arrived).

I did my bit of cardio for the year by running up to Clutch to see if the holds were dry, shake my head, then run back down the hill almost out of breath! A circuit of Star jumps, theraband and Gripp ball were up next and then a painfully cold warmup (for the feet) which kept going white every few minutes.

There were a few wet patches so the warmup was a bit shorter today consisting of a bit of shuffling then Lipstick RH, clever beaver, lip service and a failed attempt on rockatrocity in baggy moccasyms.

I thought I would see how far things had regressed and padded out In Life start. It was quite suprising to get through the start and across the arch with both feet swinging about, in a vain attempt to get them on the sidewall. Even though it was fairly cold, the two slopers didn't feel great and I was sliding about on them on the next redpoint, so decided to leave it for today.

Sean managed to get Cave Life Short done using another new sequence somewhere inbetween my own and Owen's which looked quite steady but a bit more shoulder intensive.

I watched Sorle do Oppotrocity and soaked up the beta. Something short and hard was quite appealing, so I quickly did all the moves in about 1-2 goes and had a rest. First go I fell off coming through to backhanding the flake as I didn't pull hard enough on the left arm.

Next go was surreal as I floated to the end of the problem feeling strong until the very last moment when my right arm failed to keep locked in the last pocket and my hand dragged out of the finish slot. I wasn't expecting to get that far and relaxed a bit too much on the end.

It was a bit dismaying to be doing all the hard climbing yet again and then failing on the easy finishing move on yet another problem!

I guess 8a in a session wasn't to be as I dropped the last move another 2 times and then gave up as it got too dark to see the footholds after 4pm!

Mark managed to crush Lipstick RH first attempt and then Lipstick in about 4 goes in the dark and we bailed back to the pool tucking into the Krispy Kremes and then a chicken bake from Costco before more Krispy Kremes!

I think the next 2 days are going to spent stretching and detoxing from the previous week of doughnuts/red wine/pizza..etc and hopefully I can get Oppotrocity in the bag on Thursday, before getting back on In Life.

Here's a little video for some inspiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whj9G0xhYNU

:)

Intensive

2010-11-15T02:49:00.000-08:00

Sums up yesterdays session at Anston Stones, where I basically climbed all out for about 5 hours or longer without stopping to eat or drink, trying to beat moves into submission and see if I could be close to actually getting an ascent of anything.

It was the usual scenario with a brief warmup and a couple new 7a's. Then straight to work on the stuff that should go down in a session but somehow never quite happens.

I tried in vain to get beta off Owen for Alpha but there wasn't any forthcoming so I pulled on, went wrong handed first move and failed to get the crimp out left. Next go I went straight to it off the pull on and the problem went down this go. Rookie!

Back to my long time nemesis of Ebola and unsuprisingly, I had to work out every move again as it had been a long time since I tried it. I got thoroughly knackered working out where to have my feet for every move and almost got lucky climbing through and catching the crossover move only to fire off two damp holds whilst my legs swung back in.

I had another brief go but didn't get the small pinch and moved on.

Black Crow was the next thing that caught the eye and I got out to the two holds near the lip with my feet set on the first attempt, only for the left hand to fire off soaking wet. This was the same case on two further attempts despite futile drying attempts inbetween.

I did the moves on Dark Art apart from 1 (the only hard one), then continued my beta workout left of Bullet on some reachy eliminate line inside the arete. This was proving a bit hard, so I decided to just try something even harder and got on Revolver.

I wasn't expecting much but managed to get all of the moves apart from the crux slap over in about 1 or 2 attemps on each. The body tension fight to keep feet on the back and get them across was proving a bit hard after 5 hours of horizontal shutdowns but I was glad to have had marginal success on them.

I awoke feeling completely ruined today... so I assume it was a good workout! There is the possibility of a return journey on Thursday if John gets the day off and I think the plan is for a Sunday trip also, which means a chance to have closure on Ebola. Hopefully Black Crow will have a drier LH hold and more progress can be made on Revolver and Dark Art.

Knackered

2010-11-10T01:12:00.000-08:00

I've recently been doing 100% of my climbing indoors and slowly upping the number of sessions per week to see how my weak carcass handles it before trying to up the intensity/difficulty.

Saturday 6th Nov

I had a great weekend down in Cardiff with Owen visiting his family and watching Wales take on a sprightly Australia side who had a terrible pack but were fantastic to watch on the attack!

My choice for MoM definitely goes to the Mexican assassin who was lightning, full of trickery and nearly scored an amazing solo try from just over halfway.

In action!

We went out for a lovely Japanese meal in the evening and had a good nights sleep ready to destroy Dinas Rock in the morning.

Sunday 7th Nov

The drive through the valleys was beautiful with a cold chill in the air and the sun rising up, slowly bringing some warmth to the day.

The rock at Dinas looked nice and solid with some good lines but sadly, every single problem we had in mind to try was suffering from heavy seepage from the cracks up above, so any effort to dry holds became futile.

Kev and Liam showed us where things went and we had a coffee break to see if the sun would be able to help out. We got back about 45 mins later and it was getting no better due to clouds coming over, so headed to Boulders in Cardiff instead.

There was a mini comp on, so we joined in for the day and really enjoyed the circuit of 30 comp problems. The whites were all easy and very well set as were most of the blacks bar a couple.

I was having major greasy skin problems on a couple of the harder ones 28, 29 and 30, so had a break and pottered about on some off circuit stuff. I managed to get 29 using toe hook, skipping two holds and a massive span compression to the volume. I walked my hands up the edge and held the swing to get both hands on top of the finishing hold in control.

Problem 30 had spat me off earlier on in the session on my 1 attempt. So I wasn't expecting to get much further after 4 hours in there. With the heaters now on full blast above the bouldering area and the strict tops off policy it was truly tropical but I managed to get through the bottom really easily and then snatch the finishing hold by going left hand over the top and holding the flag position before matching, a great problem.

We had to leave soon after so I didn't get back on to 28, which would have been ok save for greasing violently off earlier on. The vertical wall black 24 was nails and i'd love to see how its done.

Monday 8th Nov

Myself, Mark, Sean and Sam headed over to the Depot to have a try of the new comp wall area and the British team training black circuit problems.

I felt pretty battered from yesterday but managed to slowly warm up without having the usual shooting pains in both arms I used to get from 2 days on. The stop off at Asda to eat Southern Fried chicken from the hot counter was a bad shout and I felt a bit ill trying to climb! The thing I like most about the depot is the cold temperature compared to other walls, which means it suffers far less from grease issues.

To sum it up, the new comp wall is a good angle and the blacks were fierce. After getting a bit of a shut down, me and Sean just went around and tried to do the yellows instead which were good fun if you stayed away from the crimpy horrors.

I think by the end of our 5~ hour session I had climbed at least another 40-50 problems after the 40 the day before. Thats more than I did in 3 trips to font this year compressed into two sessions!

Tuesday 9th Nov

On the Monday drive back from Leeds, we had been informed that the new bouldering section at Liverpool was open, so agreed to have an afternoon rock scaling session on Tuesday.

As it turned out, I had a session with Dave and Jay as Sean was too busy playing Black Ops or sleeping. The new barrel roof is very good indeed and the problems up to v6 were nice and reasonable. Then suddenly the Black V7 was about 5 grades harder than any of the 6s. Either that or 3rd day on had taken its toll. I struggled to do more than 4 moves of what is an 8 move problem so moved on to the white and green. I got to the last move on the flash of the white but couldn't figure out how to get the last hold. I imagine it was set to put your foot inside your hand and lock in with your knee above your ear?! I eventually managed this after climbing 3 moves in to it but not from the start. The green was ok in 2 halves but I was way too gone to link it in 1.

I've felt pitifully weak in the Depot and Liverpool over the last 2 days so hopefully it is just the body getting accustomed to multiple sessions back to back, as V7 shouldn't be an issue but seemed to be the living end.

I'll probably fit another session this week, then rest up for Sunday where weather permitting, we will get out on grit and get schooled by Dolph!

Motivated

2010-11-02T15:14:00.001-07:00

After Sunday's board session I was super psyched today for some Peak Grit action but when we awoke it was dark/gim and the forecast was for bad weather sweeping across West to East by 12. The plans were changed and I met Dave down the wall a little later on.

I was keen for another session on the 45 to see if i could be a little less of a punter today and remembering to bring some Dragons in and sack off the solutions was a great idea! I could do a few moves on screwons and my feet occasionly remained in contact with the board.

I didn't really have a structure to the session other than make a few things up and then attempt linking them once I had the moves down with timed rests of about 3 mins between each attempt.

My skin was nowhere near as bad as on Sunday so I could spend more than a second on things before exploding off. It was good for Dave to notice my susceptibility to unconsciously dropping knees or twisting on the board, so I did attempt to climb as open as possible on most things today and I noticed a little improvement.

I also littered the board with a few more 2 finger pockets and stood aghast as the Pinn cruised around the board like a silver maned Iker Pou! I don't know if magaluf is quite ready for this tempest!

Anyway I guess I haven't written anything related to the title of this post.. so in essence i am psyched to be on the 45 board again without my fingers screaming/swelling or hurting too much. My shoulder stopped aching today too which was nice and I may have another session tomorrow seeing as all trips to the cave are off!

I don't think the board climbing is going to relate to things I'm working in the cave but it may give me the extra bit of strength & body tension necessary to slay some old nemesis' this winter such as T crack and Brad Pitt and with any luck some short testpieces in switzerland and font at the end of the year.

As the light fades

2010-11-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

It seems nonsensical to have projects anywhere other than the cave.

I'm super excited for Wednesday to see if I can get a third cave 8A/+ 3 weeks running but things will no doubt become trickier having no more daylight hours redpoints.

It's been a fairly lazy week since last Weds. I had a couple of rest days in a row and woke up with a weird shoulder niggle on the right on Saturday morning. I decided to theraband in the shop and had a light session on the stepped wall of justice in the evening, projecting the red and salmon v7's on the far right (they seem a bit poor value after 3 sessions working and no tick!).

It was feeling mildly better yesterday so I had a session on the 45 whilst watching the Pinnmeister seemingly attempt to snap all of his fingers doing pocket style ladder training on the campus board. No doubt he will rock up to the Laboratory and make a mockery of these foreign grades!

With regards to the board session, it went ok but I was having a super greasy skin session where I could literally pull on then fire off any hold at random. It was fairly productive highlighting again my weaknesses on any angle between a roof and a slab.

I definitely need to work on:

- Feet/body positioning
- Climbing more open
- pinch strength
- contact strength
- locking holds down
- getting less sweaty skin
- wear dragons/teams/v10's and not solutions that are too tight and rounded on the toe

I'll try and get a couple of sessions a week in on the board as I think my general redpoint fitness for longer problems is ok... but I'm definitely lacking in the basic strength department.

Keeping the ball rolling

2010-10-29T09:54:00.001-07:00

I'm currently enjoying a couple days of paid rest in the shop after another good cave session on Wednesday eve.

The goal of the day was Cave Life full and after a good warmup, I managed to fall off the sloper on left wall crossing under with my right hand on the first redpoint.

The second go didn't go to well as I didn't rest long enough and fell of the pinch on left wall.

After a good 20 minutes and a bit of deadhanging, I managed to glide serenely through to the kneebar rest and milked this for about half a minute... or maybe a bit longer, then the rest felt easy as I was a lot less pumped than I expected to be. I must have gained some fitness somewhere from those hundreds of laps of In Hell to the last move!

I tried In Life ater another prolonged rest and got to both feet on left wall but didn't have the beans to get my left hand over.

I made the most of the next hour and a half of lamplight to get the end of Lou Ferrino wired without using the pocket out right. It's a lovely dynamic move to the undercut pinch and some nice compression to get into the pocket with RH, then finish as or R.A. I did give it a redpoint too but had nothing left going to the undercut pinch of RA from the start.

Injury avoidance permitting, I'll hopefully get both In Life and Ferrino sans pocket ticked off in the next few visits and can concentrate on doing something hard. I might dabble on Full Circle as I feel the need to do some challenging moves instead of more epic P.E links.

The week ahead

I've got a 3 day window off work from Monday till Wednesday so will endeavour to get out and scale some rocks. If I can't find anyone keen, I may train it to the cave on Monday and go with Owen again on Wednesday. It's hard to resist the weather proof allure of my limestone mistress when things are going well.

The following weekend, I've managed to get on board a trip with Owen to Cardif to watch Wales destroy the Aussies on Saturday. This is followed by a first ever trip to Dinas, which I am totally psyched about. It'll be a good opportunity for Kev and Liam to dismay me and realise how weak I am on bloc problems :)

Destruction

2010-10-17T03:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the end of a mini epic siege as I closed the deal on In Hell.

Redpoint 1: I cruised through to the end feeling fresh only for a foot pop, as the ramp had got randomnly wet!

Redpoint 2: Same as the first go, things went well, caught the flake perfectly and got through to the finish, hit the finish slot and managed to crimp something, I lazily put the left heel under to clamp for the match and slid off after about a 1 second match. I was dismayed and knew it wasn't in control. Fish Head told me straight to get back down in the dirt and do it again!

Redpoint 3: I didn't rest long enough and fought my way through to the finish catching all of the holds badly and having to readjust everything. Powered out going over to the pinch

Redpoint 4: After a long 30 min rest and a 2 min re-warmup I felt terrible and thought I had burnt myself out. Eventually I got blood back in the hands and felt okish if a bit light headed. As soon as I pulled on and got through the first moves it felt good. Everything fell into place and I went into autopilot to the finish, hitting the finish slot badly but then clawing my hand into it and the good bit for the first time ever! This time I placed the heel under the roof properly and matched for an acceptable time.

I had to run out of the cave and let out a scream of joy. It was a massive high of satisfaction and relief at ending the siege.

It's strange that it went down in 2 sessions after being injured and away from the cave for nearly 3 months, seeing as I was a lot fitter at the start of the year and probably stronger. A victory for perseverance. All the effort and shut downs were most definitely worth it for that brief moment of joy.

Hopefully I can keep on a bit of a roll now and get a couple more lines ticked off in the cave before heading to Switzerland/Font and trying something a bit shorter!

Font Roundup

2010-09-27T01:56:00.000-07:00

I was going to do this later with some pics but got bored, so will give a little summary and add some photos later.

After the first 3 days of efforts we had a rest day as everyone was suffering.

Fri 17th

After trying an early morning hit on Fourmis Rouges, I was shut down greasing off the previous sessions high point attempting to get my right foot on somewhere near my groin greasing backwards off the left sloper/right rail. The sun was up fairly early and i didn't feel warmed up at all. Big Boss also shut me down cold, so I went down the hill and managed to tick off the right eit to Bleau's Art - Tina, Hier kommt die Sahne, which is a great compression problem.

On the recommendation of Ben Farley we visited Bois Rond and Drei Zinnen in the evening ticking off some great problems, the best of which was probably La Bombe Humaine or Pantoum.

Sat 18th

Isatis was on the menu with it being another warm and sunny day. We warmed up around the Surprises area and headed over to l'Arrache Coeur. I had watched some videos so had an idea of what was required and on the first attempt, was on the last 2 crimps walking my feet around for about 15 seconds or so until I greased off backwards! What was to come was not really expected as I failed to find the knee bar for a good few attempts and scraped a lot of skin off my leg in the process! The kneebar padding idea came only when it was a little late and I was to suffer with a seeping leg wound for the next few days.

The best attempt was fingers on the top but not curled around and I gave in as my skin got too thin trying to bone on the greasy crimps. We also saw team 5.10.wad walk past with the imp sized enzo leading the way (he later crushed an 8B in this heat!)

I ticked off a few consolation problems on the flash such as abdolobotamy (which felt hard) and Surplomb Feuillete which was very good + the esoteric crack dyno la ou finit la Raie des Fesses from a low start.

Sun 19th

We had planned a rest day but me and Mike got too keen to climb again, so we ventured out to Buthiers for a short session. We flashed through all of the essentials until all the 6's were done then walked over to Magic Bus.

With a good nights sleep under their belts it proved a short visit as Sean then Mike both walked up it in fine style. On to the Partage bloc.

The two lines were truly inspiring and I got psyched for trying attention chef D'Ouevre. After padding out a fairly bombproof landing zone, the boots were on and I made my way up through some nice Gaston finger locks/layaways. There was a brief foot pop out of a small pocket but I managed to hold on and fight through to the end. A very good problem.

The last trip of the night was a rematch on a non wet Lady Big Claques which unsurprisingly felt a lot easier this time and I got up it on the first attempt. Another classic 7a.

Mike got close but kept forgetting his sequences and it then became a bit too dark to see anything.

Mon 20th

Apremont was the not so wise choice, as the sun was high in the sky early on and beating down in what was probably the hottest day of the trip.

I lounged about in the shade with Hoppo eating as the others warmed up. It was too hot in the Ju Jitsu area so we went up to Science Friction which was still in the shade. I set up the camera and watched with much mirth as Mike, Sean and Mark all tackled this desperate piece of choss.

Sean did a controversial left hand version which is about 5b but the main event eluded him. Mike basically got set to grab the top and lost balance a couple of times and Mark nearly lost the will to live!

Sensing a need for some achieving, I took them over to Fleur de Rhum and mentioned that 'even Millso did this one', so they knew it required nothing more than some boning and pulling with minimal footwork!

It was also in the shade which helped a lot and one by one they all took it down including a random Norwegian guy built like a tank who had come with us up from the Science Friction area. You could see the fear in Mike Psyche as he spotted miles below this gargantuan man praying for him not to come hurtling down.

We moved around the block to look at Hercules. Me and Sean got absolutely spanked for quite a while until Mike psyche had the vision and using his new sequence, we just about got across for this most desperate of 7a ticks.

We had a brief look at Egoiste but it was super sweaty and nobody could hold on to the arete, so we bailed further across to have a quick go on Marginal Droite. I got to the last move on the flash psyche then greased off backwards in what were terribly humid conditions. The rock had retained the days heat and there was zero wind. With another 2 poor efforts, I finally unleashed the overcrimp and crimped every single greasy sloper into submission in an act which would surely have horrified (if not suprprised) Huthwaite from our earlier grit days out!

Tues 21st

Me and Sean took a rest day and followed the others around Cuisiniere. I pointed them at problems to try and they didn't get on too well, so I scoured the memory banks and remembered Bizarre Bizarre. After really struggling on the first 2 attempts, Mark called upon the power of Noor and campussed his way up some non holds inbetween the big ones and was on top in a flash. Mike struggled with the guppy, so had a go on Karma instead which ended at the first hold :D

We then went over to Petit Paradis to have a look at Fat Woman and after working a sequence or two, Mike managed an ascent as it went very dark. Mark struggled with the greasy lip this time and had to admit defeat.

Weds 22nd

Feeling stronger than 10 bulls, me and Hoppo decided today was the day to start achieving. We managed to get out the campsite before 9.30am and hit Cuvier hard. As we warmed up in the Marie Rose area, we came across an odd couple, one of whom looked like a body building penguin from Hull and the other a bit like a balding rings gymnast. They seemed quite friendly so we spent the morning in their company getting the lowdown.

As it was already boiling hot aka 25 degrees, it was now or never. We went to the Carnage bloc and padded it out, beat it with some towels and started the final attempts. On my first go on Berezina, I finally got matched on the slimps, had a bit of a brain freeze and went left hand again to a terrible slopey nothing and peeled off. Sean had a couple of goes on Carnage warming into the moves and I failed to match again for about 5 attempts.

Mark then pointed out that my left foot wasn't flagging to the correct place. Upon this small detail, great success was achieved as I got the match and then shook my way through the font 5 top out as directed by Lee. It was really nice to get this classic ticked in this heat after the shutdown in March and April.

Clearly inspired, Sean then dispatched Carnage in the most static fashion I have seen.

We then bailed to Milly for Lunch as the heat rose to 26.

Not finished for the day, we went to Sablons and I was made up to get Modulor done and then Jokari droite. An epic shutdown occured on the 7a+ arete uphill and we called it a day.

Thurs 23rd

The last day was spent at 95.2 in baking conditions but we sought out the shade and were once again rewarded.

After trying Ange naif righthand (7a+?!) and never getting closer than blind slaps around the lip, we decided to try the harder original version. I must say it was a surprise to flash it, and it felt about 7a! I thought the dyno looked a fair bit trickier having watched Neil on it in one of his videos, so tried this next and stuck it first try also! I've never done a 7c dyno but plenty of 7a+ to 7b's that felt harder than this. I then rounded off the stupid jumping with the superb double dyno Jafesse Connexion Airline to the left.

Mike psyche then destroyed the original Naif after doing some negative touches to the top and we moved around the corner.

I fought through the greasy heat and got Jete Michaud, then Bloc a Bertrand ticked off and we went to Rudeboy. Mike did Duel dans la lune and we worked out the direct version pieds dans la lune only for a massive thunder shower to put an end to it.

After another lunch stop in Milly, we checked out a steep cave in Elephant after Scott had recommended it as a wet weather venue. The book didn't really give us a clue about what went where so we just did laps on the brilliant tufa line to the lip and then attempted the left exit believing this to be a stout 7a+ called Equivogue (turns out it is 7b+). We aped about doing some bathangs wishing we had the core of Steve McClure and went back the campsite.

Summary

Team Rich&Mark = 82 points
Team Sean&Mike = 32 points

Schooling over till next time ;)

3 Days on

2010-09-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

Hello from the forest.

The team are currently still in bed after a brutal 3 days of slab shutdowns and power failures on numerous font classics.

Seeing as we need a rest day I'll do a quick recap of whats been going on...

Mon 13th

We got to Maisonbleau around 10.30am feeling a bit white after no sleep since 7am on Sunday morning and immediately went and crashed out, managing about 3 hours sleep before the psyche to climb got too high.

Buthiers was the venue of choice being just down the road and we warmed up over at Tennis area. I quickly sandbagged Sean and Mike by doing a lap of Marmelade (a terriblly sandy piece of choss) and laughed as they flailed. I went back on to try get it on film and got shutdown too! haha.

Myself and Sean were really keen for Nemesis as it looked piss on bleau.info so we padded it out and then received a lesson for about 30 minutes until we had to wave the white flag ashamed of our efforts (we felt too short and are both 6"2!).

We headed over to the Piscince area and got on with some classic easier lines from the essentials guide and then padded out Lady Big Claques. The flash was going well until a violent grease off and me and Mike got no higher than on our first goes! Ben Farley is a wad.

Deciding we were just too strong for this shit we bailed over to the grotty roof of Magic Bus and I managed to almost get the flash only to scrape a pad hitting the break. It was in the bag 2nd try and I willed on Sean, Mike and Mark to get another ascent but sadly it was almost pitch black and we were all fatigued.

Tues 14th

Rejuvinated from a good nights sleep, we headed to Petit Bois and wandered around trying to find some non green warmups. They were to be found just uphill from La Baleine and were all really good mantle topouts that left your elbows begging for mercy!

We retreated down the hill and got Big Jim padded out. I filmed as the others all got to the last move but didn't commit to the slap. I got bored of heckling, so booted up and got the retro flash, then another lap to get it on film.

They declared it tweaky... and I quote from Sean Hoppo "I didn't come to climb this pex hill shit!".

We went over to La Baleine and everyone agreed it was a stunning line. After dropping the rail on go number 1, Sean suggested a higher right foot and hey presto, next go it was done, for what I think is one of my top 5 problems in font.

Mike psyche came the closest to another ascent but it didn't quite happen.

We then hit Elephant as it stays light a little later than most venues.

We all did Lepreaux and le Voie Michaud and I managed Lepreaux Direct after realising the big sidepull wasn't in.

I recalled Barre Fixe looking nice and steep as well as soft for 7b+, so ran over there and got a bit of a left hand tweak form trying to crank on a mono. I changed sequence and got to the slap to the jug and found this hard, so had to refine once more. It went down 3rd go using some twisty moves and a bit of a girly scream to the jug.

With the moon fully out, me and Mark found Le Coeur and I booted up in the dark. I pulled on and crossed over to get the heart, matched it and scrambled my feet up on to smears to stab into the hanging seam. I campussed over with my left and then mauled the top not being able to see any footholds! A victory flash for blind thuggery.

Wed 15th

Feeling a bit wrecked from the first 2 days, we had a slower start, mincing around carrefour and buying some fly team shoes in Decathlon. New Feel shoes could be the greatest bargain of all time for a mere 9 euros per pair! I'll get a photo uploaded in due course. T Mills would approve.

We warmed up at Cuvier and then watched in disbelief as Mike almost flashed Marie Rose only to punter the 2nd to last move. He then watched me cruise up it in fine style and dispatched it with ease. Sean followed and Mark was havingtrouble with his dodgy fingers on the left crimp/pinch high up, so opted to leave it for now.

We headed over to do Red 35 and thought it would be in the off piste 6a and above guide but turns out it is 5+ even though it took 100% effort to get up.

I decided to find a 7a that the team could ascend and goaded them round the corner into trying Pif Paf, a fun looking double dyno to two slopers and an easy top out.

Lady luck was on our side and after myself and sean scrambled up it, Mike psyche (the most undynamic man in climbing) levitated serenely up to the slopers and cruised the top. It was left for Mark to complete the team ascent and after a couple of hairy moments, he was stood atop but paying the price with a couple of bloody tips :()

It was a bit warm at Cuvier so we headed down the path to Bleau's Art to find it in the shade and in prime condition. I patted chalk on to the wonderful curving grips and then booted, chalked and flashed it to my amazement.

Mike then got his crush on and walked up it on about his 3rd try. The others were resting and saving skin, so we headed up to have a look at the Big 4. I put pads underneath Watchtower and chalked up but upon feeling the right hand pull on hold, I decided a split tip was not ideal on day 3 of 12, so shifted over to have a quick go on Fourmis Rouges to see if it was realistic.

It felt a bit weird and off balance on the first 2 goes, but on go number 3 I managed to get up the crackline and jump out to the top left pinch. I started to get my right foot on the smear to rock in to the top but both hands pinged off with grease and a lack of energy. I only had another go and was powering out matching before the jump to the pinch, so we called it a day and went home for beer and an excellent chilli.

Apologies for the lack of pictures as we have no cable to get them off the camera and on to the laptop. There is a fair bit of footage so far, so hopefully we can climb something of note and make it an entertaining watch!

Gearing up for font Trip #3

2010-09-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

After the recent misery of injury troubles I'm not quite out of the woods yet but have managed to climb 4 days on in Dartmoor without pain and only minor swelling that went away after a day.

The trip!

Friday 27th August

Myself and Mark left my house at the unearthly hour of 6am and sped, via the Wirral to a sunny Dartmoor (partaking in some mid morning pastry eating on the way).

We spent the half day at Bonehill in blazing heat and took a while to get accustomed to balancing/open handing everything and avoiding slapping or pulling!

The best of the problems were a wall to the right of the Wave and the very good almost highball Rippled wall.

Saturday 28th

We hit up Easdon rocks on the recommendation of O and on first appearance it was all a bit underwhelming after fighting up through mud and gauze.

While Bex and Mark decided not to bother, I got psyched and did some of the warmups. The rock was a bit scrittly and the top outs dirty but the climbing was ok. The highlights were a V3 sitter from a flake into a traverse on large shelves and wonderful chickenhead features and Easdon Crack.

Easdon Arete was the line of the crag but I got shut down on the move to the small ball feature. I couldn't believe it was 7a+ but discovered I should have bounced my left foot up once the heel was in place. I'd love to try this when it's a bit colder.

The second crag of the day was Hound Tor. A bit poor problem wise I thought but Prowed and the stand to Alan Smith were worthwhile. I thought the sitter would be pretty straight forward but struggled to pull on for more than a couple of seconds and couldn't move either my left or right hand towards the next hold! I didn't try for long not wanting to injure the right middle again.

Sunday 29th

The best day of the trip was definitely the visit to Combeshead Tor. The walk in was long but very picturesque with some points of interest such as some abbey ruins and very nice views up at the top. There was a nice wild and isolated vibe up at the boulders, with just a few sheep and the wild horses for company.

I would definitely recommend a visit if you are in the area and after an easy circuit of quality problems. Sharp arete, The easy cracks on the Hanging Flakes boulder, Hanging Groove, Hanging Flakes, The Sloper problem and the dyno from undercuts were all very good.

Monday 30th

We finished off our Dartmoor trip with a visit to Saddle Tor in what turned out to be the most boiling day of the trip. The others were feeling a bit lethargic after 3 days of skin grating circuit training. So I once again got the psyche on and warmed up with some solo's and the great Bjorn again. This was followed by some scary aretes and a cool board style 7a+ eliminate to the right of Bjorn. I got fully shut down on Dancing Queen and Foal's Chopper sliding off what I think were the holds?! It all felt desperate in the full sun.

We moved downhill to the Hidden traverse area and did a team ascent of the traverse with the sketchy topout adding to the entertainment.

The best problem was definitely the wonderful Rich's Tick, that involved an easy span, some body tension and a lovely bit of grit style wrestling to conquer the hanging lip.

The trip was rounded off with a trip into Widecombe to enjoy an amazing cream tea before we headed back to Liverpool in what seemed a never ending traffic jam... although I did enjoy the stop off at Burger King to purchase a fine Aberdeen Angus & Bacon cheeseburger.

Saturday 4th September

After coming out the other side of a 4 day trip of easy volume, I felt ready to test the waters further and went with a large scouse contingent to Newbiggin in the South Lakes.

It was a beautiful setting if a bit lowball. After a brief warmup of 3 move wonders, I managed to bag a fast ascent of Slap arete and repeated it using a total of 3 methods whilst Hoppo flailed and declared it shit!

We moved to the Fridge which felt like climbing out of a phone box without touching the sides. This featured a really nice first move and good body tension compression afterwards. I just about flashed it and then watched Hoppo do a controversial heel toe lock version ;) Owen, Andy and Chessie Si all followed with equally fast repeats.

The main event of the day for me was the wonderful Ingleborough Wall. After flapping about like a dying seal, Ben F showed the way with a double inverted palm footless mantle of death, getting his belly on and then slapping to the distant break. He added the sit next go and declared it Castle Hill 6C+/7A (reaffirming my gut feeling that I should never venture here!).

After a bit of a battle I eventually got it done from standing. A brief 5 min rest and I was lay prone on top once again, only for my left palm to ping off... I fired off the lip scraping all the way to land in a heap of pads with a girly scream.

The heckles of the rabble were all that were necessary to fire up the psyche and it was dispatched next go with a desperate lunge for the top break as both hands came off and I balanced perilously.

We moved on to Dalton to go find Umbongo. The 500m walk turned out to be more like 1.5k but what we found was not too bad. Ben walked up it. I tried a spoony method and had to swap to ben's method to get it next try as did Sean. Owen and Chessie weren't feeling the love and opted to abuse.

Fully schooled in the South Lakes rules. We then did 5 methods between the 3 of us to ensure at least 1 tick that Greg couldn't call us on!

It was a good day out and my finger isn't too bad today. Hopefully pushing it a little each time will get it back to full fitness by the end of my font trip and I can look forward to getting back in the cave without fearing popping or tearing.

What to do

2010-08-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

Well I've not really been up to much save for continuing the weights/core/pressups sessions and tentative climbing sessions...

Tuesday 17th

I had a trip out to the Roaches/Ramshaw which consisted of walking around wet boulders with Davos Deeros providing the tour in the mist and rain. We soon gave up and made a trip to Awful Walls Stoke.

The centre was quite nice and I basically stuck to easy circuits downstairs before moving on to some jug hauling upstairs. The highlight of the day was hot chocolate Muffin and Ice Cream afterwards! The finger was ok the next day, encouraging.

Thursday 19th

I hit up Woodwell and Warton with O, Sean and Sam. I stuck to soloing the highball v0-v2 routes whilst the others played on the steep stuff.

Sean had a great day climbing his first 7c+ with an impressively smooth ascent of Goode Poison and then to my surprise he totally crushed E-Fix on the flash. One to watch!

Owen should have climbed E-Fix but had trouble converting the moves into a tick and we moved over to Woodwell

I gave Hoppo the beta for AOSD and then went off to scare myself on more highball vo-v4's along the path to the right of Tom's roof.

Sunday 22nd

I had a short session after work on the step wall repeating the easy shit up to blues then flashing a black v5/6 which had big slopey holds bar 1 RH crimp. I felt ok after and moved upstairs to do some beastmakering minus the RH middle, followed by core/pullups/pressups.

I woke up this morning and my finger feels really shit again and inflamed, almost as bad as after that cave session about 3 weeks ago which was when I last really climbed. It's frustrating beyond belief and I don't know whether to sack off doing any climbing until the 13th Sep and just do Yellow circuits for 2 weeks. I've already paid for accomodation in Dartmoor next weekend, so will probably end up filming and drinking for 4 days. I don't know what the best thing to do is apart from rest now as I've tried gradual stress rather than completely stopping and it hasn't shown any sign of improving.

I've read One Move too many and come to the conclusion it could be any number of things! Tendovaginitis/sheath tears/small fracture/Synovial fluid overload...etc

I might try and go the doctor's tomorrow but fear I will just get a generic 'rest and ibuprofen' answer.

WWLD

2010-08-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a low for the last couple of weeks patiently waiting for my dodgy finger to sort itself out so I can begin rehab climbing without reprecussions. It has been assessed by the ever helpful Matt Donnelly and he says the extensor hood + some other bits below have been antagonised greatly by my actions!

I was going to head out today with Owen, Sam and Sean to the S Lakes to try my hand at some V0-V2's at Woodwell middle as well as getting some footage of the others but the rainy start and my finger still not feeling good when closed put paid to this.

I was about to make another cup of tea and read a book, when I was suddenly hit with a massive motivation to return to climbing stronger and in better shape than ever before and sort out my posture/shoulders/elbows at the same time... No more moping around!

I put the powerbar in place, got the weights out as well as 2 large novels and got to work...

Thought a good training circuit would do wonders if I can keep it up 3-4 days a week while I wait to be able to bear down.

Started off with weights:
3 sets of 10 side raises; 3 sets of 10 front raises; 3 sets of 12 curl into shoulder press; 3 sets of 12 bicep curls; 3 sets of 12 bent over rows (on each arm for all)

Then moved on to a Pressup/pullup/leg raises circuit:
- utilising the 2 novels with fingers over the edge to avoid pressing on my dodgy finger I was able to do deep pressups pain free!
- Did 15 pressups/15 pullups/15 leg raises then 12/8/6/4/2 without stopping and then collapsed feeling slightly sick

I'm so out of shape that gains will be easily had, which is further motivation to now stick with this. It would be nice to get rid of the ill looking hunchback physique and draw inspiration from the great man:

Inspired by Louey I enjoyed a fantastic lunch and then began to read Tolstoy's War and peace in the back garden as the sun shone through the clouds and it turned from sketchy rain to really quite pleasant. I had a snooze on the reclining garden chair and when I awoke there was only one thing on my mind...

I hit up a filter coffee and watched Between the trees and was massively inspired once again by the sheer beastliness of Ty and decided 1 session a day is pitiful. I grabbed my shoes & chalkbag and made the 1hr 15 bus and walk journey to the wall to have a great beastmaker & pullup bar session, managing to get a good workout without having to use the finger of doom!

A request to Maisonbleau for a weeks booking in late September has just been sent, so hopefully it's still available and font trip #3 will be ON!

On the Brink

2010-08-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Of many things

- In Hell (if it stays dry and stops condensing/seeping damn it!)
- Injury (as my middle finger on right hand is inflamed and swelled at the middle joint and above)
- Getting too psyched

Since my last post i have had a couple of fun days out:

Tues 27th July

Went to a certain cave... It was good as always but sadly it had been condensed all morning and P Rob was leaving in the scorching heat having just casually warmed down with Pilgrimage from the finish of R.A! Such an inspiration.

In Hell was immediately sacked being wet at the start, so I went for a heavy volume session doing laps of the lip problems and then trying to repeat Trigger Cut giving beta to Mike and Sean as well as the boys from Denbigh. Kept failing to hold the shotrail slap but I think it just needed to be a bit colder for me to feel more stable on the holds. Played on Halfway but was lacking the core, so moved on to Clyde.

Had a go of the drop in move to get both hands into Trigger cut but found it desperate still! Nowhere near holding anything. The start was feeling really easy though and I almost held the cross under move to the sharp jug/slot a few times. It was super greasy on the RH pinch so I was pinging off as I was trying to get a lock on the slot.

The session finished with a fitness training attempt on the Clever Beaver sitter into Beaver Cleaver and I felt miraculously fresh on the slap to the lip and the drop into the undercut. The rest felt easy and I think it might actually be 7b+ and not the 7c I had assumed in the past.

Wednesday 28th July

I headed over to Churnet with some cockney twat to meet up with some pikey from Stoke. (who claimed to be a scouser) and we got a thoroughly weak warmup at Cottaging rocks, a wonderful wall of pocketed sandstone. I felt utterly terrible from the 5 hour cave session of Tuesday but persevered.

After the intro we hit some esoteria, first stop The Duck Billed Platypus. I watched the other two have a flail attempt with low feet and then suggested the obvious heel/lock method. Ben wasn't sure, so I slid under the roof and then dispatched it with a wonderful right arm lock to a good crimp and then float a slap to a big sloping jug and campus to the top.

Ben showed us the Breathe problem to go and return to the duck (which he crushed with no witnesses ;)) and me and Dave got spanked on this alleged soft 7a standup! The sloper was truly minging in the humidity and then it began to rain so we bailed to Wright's rock.

We made Ben go uphill first and let him get soaked trousers in the heather whilst we tip toed up behind. It was horrid up top with a lot of humidity/rain and shit loads of flies! The other's stopped at Wright's Unconquerable whilst I ran across hoping to get away from the flies but they were even worse at Wright's rock main. I went back and tried the aforementioned with Ben only to find it desperate to use footholds in the roof after the footledge. Then it struck to just match the middle of the crack and dyno to the lip. After doing the move it was fine from the start and a lovely horizontal leg kick after hanging the juggy sloper on the lip! What a cool problem although a bit stiff for 7a?!

I finished off with a sketchy onsight of Rocket Ride, my fingers really hurt and the white flag was waved.

Sat 31st July

My RH middle finger was well massive in the morning and couldn't straighten or close fully but didn't seem to hurt when I gripped on my left arm in different positions so I thought I'd go give it a go anyway and I could always heckle from the director's chair (easycamp) if the hand didn't feel good.

The cave was in good nick apart from the pinch on R.A. being really wet. This was probably a good thing if I wasn't to explode my finger so i did a long slow warmup and then thought of something to try. Broken Heart has always been really hard for me with the heel-toe working about 1 in 20 attempts. Thankfully today, on the first go, it stuck easily, i got the undercut and snatched through the moves to arrive at the break quite pumped, I got a coupel moves into Lip Service and then fell off. Good warmup go!

A couple of goes later and I fell off after holding the diagonal fingerjug before the top jug. I had a word and then destroyed it! (thanks to Owen for pointing out some minor foot beta to do the last move). It still felt as hard as Lou F to me and is clearly not 7C unless they both are? To prove a point I had a 5 min rest then did a lap of Lou F! I felt good. Tried the moves on Ferrino sans pocket but the wet undercut made it a bit tricky today.

More monkeying around and I had refined the beta on Sam's finish (still using the handswap on Clever Beaver sloper but crucially a left toe hook to release my feet across and into the jump position to the block sidepull). With the new foot beta, I managed to just about haul my way up the last 2 moves feeling like I could have dropped off at any point. It was a nice fight and a good bonus to finish off the day... or was it.

I was pretty psyched so tried to do on the minute laps of every lip problem from a stand and got up about 8 of them before getting fully shut down on left wall low feeling a bit nauseous.

Sean had a good session getting Lip Service and Parisella's original ticked off as well as making massive progress on lou F with the lanky beta.

On to today and my right middle finger is very very big and tweaky, so I'll not risk it and have a few days off and do the hot and cold water baths I started off on last night.

It'd probably be wise to speak to the Donnelly but I feel a bit cheeky having already had a bad posture and trapped medial nerve in left arm assessment only the other day. It's hopefully nothing too serious as it didn't hurt to climb in open hand or half crimp positions but is tender on top and to the sides of the middle knuckle.

Need to be patient for it to heal and think of the bigger picture... even though I have a day off on Tuesday and conditions are looking good! :()

Inspiration and goal setting

2010-07-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

After last summer's trip to Magic Wood with Andy and Mark I got back home really excited to push on a bit and get strong/start climbing harder.

I look at 8a.nu and see other people climbing multiple 8th grade problems as if they are nothing! I wonder how to get to this level of ability, to get things done in short time and wish for this to happen to my climbing!

The problem is training hard enough/knowing what specifically to train and still getting things ticked whilst attempting to head up the exponentially steep hill called grade progression.

I've had a pretty poor year so far and managed maybe 1 problem I consider 'hard' (for me at least). Injuries have been commonplace and I don't even feel like I have trained enough to improve. My only level of benchmarking is doing laps of things in the cave and getting closer on my year goal of font 8a+.

I had probably my best session in a long time on Tuesday dropping the last hold on In Hell 3 times in a row and once not being able to hang the slot long enough to match. I don't know whether I am actually improving or just super conditioned to this set of moves. I fear becoming a one trick pony and getting shut down hard in Magic Wood come September. I feel like I don't deserve to get things done if I aren't cranking out laps on the 50 deg board and sweating/fingerboarding till failure..etc but I seem to break down and require a lot of rest if I attempt this.

I think I read somewhere on fit club from Simon questioning if the best policy is to beat things into submission or take time off and rest/regroup. I am always unsure of this. Should I just train hard and treat outdoor days leading up to a trip as active rest days and ignore feeling weak and not getting things done hoping to hit peak strength come trip time. Or should I always take double rest days and try climbing all out 99% of the time??

Anyway, I apologise for the above incoherent ramblings.

I watched Core again last night and really enjoyed watching the Italian bouldering which brought back good memories from the brief trip to Sassofortino and Amiata that me and Tom enjoyed a couple years ago. It's a beautifully made film and I appreciate how he has used the shorts of Shawn Rabatou to give some structure to the film as he picks the different items out of the claw machine representative of the segments. I know a lot of people aren't fans of the Fryburger's methods but I enjoyed this as much as Pure, which I put on straight afterward to watch the Swiss bouldering.

With renewed enthusiasm, the swiss hitlist was re-wrote and I think if I can get a couple of 8th grade problems (chiefly Octopussy and Astronautenfieber) done I would be made up. I'd love to get something like Jack's broken heart, Electric Boogie or Voigas done but am scared to set goals too high and waste energy failing when I would have more chance on something easier. I guess the best way to look at it, is that it's all training for the cave anyway ;)

Roped shenanigans and the Ondra Show

2010-07-12T02:15:00.000-07:00

I've felt pretty uninspired of late, so not felt an urge to post an update on things.

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I had read a couple of books (9 out of 10..etc) and got motivated to try something new that I was crap at, so bought the various paraphernalia required to sport climb and got involved.

26th&27th June

A couple of weeks back, I had a great trip to Yorkshire with Dave Pin, Holger, Fiona and Aefe. We spent a day at Yew Cogar which was a fantastic piece of rock featuring wonderful tufa features and routes that were not too long to be doable without resting on a rope!

The highlight was definitely puntering my way up Cruisin for a Bruisin on about the 4th redpoint of the day screaming for the last couple of moves as the I caught the holds the wrong way and generally fought like I have never had to before. It all looked a bit pathetic after Dave had cruised it and then done a casual lap of the 7C to the left.

The walkout looked epic as we set off back up the massive hill but with heads down and stomping, it didn't end us.

On the way to the free camping spot we dropped in at what appeared to be a nice, quiet village pub. Holger had his reservations after popping his head in through the front door but Dave insisted that "you never get a bad pint in Yorkshire".

We tentatively entered the front door and walked up to what appeared to be a bar/reception desk with a peculiar looking man behind it. Dave erred in asking whether it was a pub to which the landlord replied "do you think it looks like a pub?". He then said he had some ales and we asked what he had;

Barman: "well what do you want"
Dave: "Well what have you got"
Barman: "Well what do you want"
A perplexed Dave: "Well that kind of depends on what you have got?!"

We noticed a lack of taps on the bar and the guy insisted he had a barrel of Timothy Taylors under the counter but asked that we don't watch while he prepares them.

We laugh nervously and try and look elsewhere as Holger sneaks outside clearly ill at ease. The guy sprays the pints into the glasses direct from the barrel using a hose and then asks "how much would a round like this cost in Liverpool?". Dave replies "£3.50 and 2 bags of crisps". The guy seems to have no idea of prices, so we hand him a tenner and shift uneasily past the stuffed fox and back outside.

The pint's were clearly not TT's and were a pretty potent homebrew that had no doubt been maturing in that barrel for many a year!

We hit Kilnsey the next day and I managed to get up a few more things such as Sidekick, Nerve Ending and after Dave had cleaned it up and crushed it, I failed on the end of Fit of Peak.

We then went to a pub with a big screen along with Pete Robins and Rach who we met at Kilnsey earlier and watched as Holger's home nation made us look like schoolboys. it was quite funny to watch Holger cheer each goal and then sink back down into his chair as the locals looked to be ready to lynch the imposter!

29th June

I returned to Kilnsey with Hoppo, The Pinnmeister, John M and Holger feeling a bit weak in comparison.

The warm up was a few pullups down the far end of the crag and a lucky first redpoint ascent of Fit of Peak for my goal of the year of sport 7b+ (soft 7c YYFY?!). Hoppo should have done it but didn't quite manage, so we moved leftwards and I got on Comedy. The flash attempt was over a bit abruptly when I rather lazily put the right toehook in under the big undercuts and didn't really place it, so I span off when reaching for the holds near the 2nd clip.

With this amazing attempt out of the way, I managed to get up to the cigar move on the 2nd try and run out of gas. Short rest, then piss the move and get to the top ok. No hard moves but strangely it felt hard to me!

I had a couple more goes but fell off that same move both times after clipping the 4th. It should hopefully go down next visit and I may have even developed the fitness to do an extra move by then.

3rd&4th July

I went with the Hoppo family scal and Youngy to go and watch the biggest beast in the world (+ others). We managed to do fairly well getting free camping and the Hoppo's even better by sneaking in to the event through various rivers/bushes without paying in. I figured it better to just pay the £5 entry and not feel paranoid all day about being ejected!

The qualifiers went well for the Brits and 7 made it through to the semi's. Me, Youngy and Sean were torn between watching the Kilian/Ondra show and watching the women's problem 5 with the crowd pleasing splits move finale!

The Semi final was good to watch and Ondra didn't dissapoint... his gangly frame, long neck, crazy hair and awkward appearance were everything we had hoped to see and then he totally destroyed everything.

We whooped with delight as he let out a magnificent ostrich like power scream and booked his place in the final. Kilian was anything but on form. He struggled and declared the problems shit before walking off a couple of them with over a minute still left on the clock. I had been hoping to watch the final face off but it wasn't to be.

During the interval, I was persuaded to enter into the dyno comp which all seemed a bit pointless seeing as Skyler had turned up but it turned out to be quite fun and I was amazed at how far away the hold is when pulling on to the start! I made it through to about the last 6 at 2.45 (thanks to Lily for lending the chalk) and couldn't imagine how to get the extra 40cm of jump! We then watched him crush a casual 2.80 with a dodgy arm to take home his cheque which I imagine barely covered the flight back home.

The final was the ondra show as he dispatched the first 3 problems with ease. The only blip came on the final problem as the crowd went a bit quiet after 2 failed attempts. He sorted the move and cruised to the top to secure another victory and we went wild :D

last week

Inspired by the events of the weekend, I had a couple of indoor bouldering sessions on Monday and Wednesday. Monday was a quick crush of the new step wall set flashing all but 2 and then getting them on lock down. The arm felt a bit sore the next day so I didn't risk the routes with Matt and Tom and chose to sink some beers whilst watching the first WC semi.

I went to Rockover Climbing with Sean and Mike psyche on Weds and was really impressed by the new centre. The comp wall was nice and wide with plenty of light and no risk of kids running past underneath!

Sadly, The power was well and truly not on as I got spanked on most of the comp wall ascending maybe 6 out of 15 I tried. i think it's a combination of the crazy humidity on those crimps, weak arms and a lack of technique but it has let me know what needs working on before Switzerland in September. When we moved over to the steep roof corner things were a lot better as I could climb the green and yellows again with it being more cave/crypt-like in style! Note to self: Stick to roofs as walls and barrel walls are desperate.

I worked all weekend and enjoyed a diet of pizza, burgers, beer and more beer watching the 3rd place play off and the final which was a bit flat. Really glad to have watched Spain win after the Dutch played a rather cynical game and gutted how I dropped away in the UKB fantasy football league falling from a solid top 2 place a couple weeks ago to 6th... I will never disregard Diego Forlorn ever again!

(Cheers to Dave Pinnington photography for the above images!)

On the Mend!

2010-06-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

After some sage advice from the ukb forums and a chat to Pete Chadwick on the phone, I have nursed the left arm of weakness towards the road of recovery.

I basically did no climbing at all for 6 days whilst performing light weight exercises in work sat on my arse. These are all aimed at fixing the small tissue/tendons that support the major muscle groups in the arm which have apparently grown strong (a debatable point!) whilst the small bits have been on holiday, meaning imbalance and pain.

Anyway...

I tentatively arranged an outdoor rock climbing trip with my good friend Benedict and met him in a leafy Hartford village on Tuesday afternoon. The strong boys were heading to the cave but I couldn't quite face it just yet and it would probably set me back again in terms of recovering fully. The venue of choice was Harmer's Wood as I figured it was going to be relatively easy on the arms and a good finger workout as well as a test of footwork!

Upon arrival I was really impressed with the stand-out aretes and highball walls, all with nice flat landings in a fairly open plan space that felt quite peaceful.

A local guy turned up who was part of the local village team who had been working on making the area easy to access and family friendly. I just followed Ben around climbing almost everything and offering grades for each one (that somehow amazingly matched what himself and Andy had agreed on).

There were some really brilliant climbs from F5+ to F7B with the classics being The highball rib line, Queen of Hearts, Harmadillo and Baby Bloc.

At the end of our 3 hour session my fingers were truly destroyed and my toes ached as I found wearing super tight, thin 5.10 projects and standing on small edges made the toes work overtime.

The climbing was fantastic and very similar to Pex in places but a much nicer venue overall in terms of landings, lack of litter and no scallies (save for Ben and Chezzie Si).

I didn't manage one of Ben's harder lines and didn't get on the line left of Baby Bloc, so will most likely be going back again Tuesday next week to finish these off. It was nice to be climbing pain free again and should be good to go in the cave/s lakes again after Tuesday assuming all goes well.

Here is a local lady who turned up clearly psyched for some hardcore sandstone crimping:

June already

2010-06-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

...And nothing of note achieved. I've been mainly working in the shop lately and nursing yet another left arm injury, so after an unproductive session at Pantymwyn belaying John up Grand Canyon, I took a couple days out and then spent the rest of the week carefully fingerboarding and seeing where I was. The result was weak in the fingers and unable to 1 arm deadhang!

After the last fingerboard session being pain free, I decided to test out the level of injury on the rock as myself, O, Pete and Si drove through torrential rain to a misty but dryish Llanberis pass. We warmed up around the roadside and I managed to just about beat the pump to crush Cave Route and Roadside Basic which both felt desperate!

Luckily the arm didn't seem to suffer other than a mega pump, so after a break to stare bemused at a large bus load of Polish tourists who ran about the boulders taking photographs of cloud and drizzle, I had a play on Diesel Power.

Despite having seen Mike climb it in about 20 mins last month, Owen didn't remember any beta at all, so I just got on with failing on every move for a good hour. I skipped past the first move as I didn't know the rules about where you start and also couldn't figure out where to put feet for most of the moves! By the end of this rather poor showing I had managed about 3 hand moves. It was quite condensed on the rock with the low clouds but I am in dire need of some foot beta and body tension.

After a bit of lunch I went over to spot Pete and Andy on Bus Stop. Pete managed to crush the first 2 moves but was struggling on the finish. I did it from a move in to try remember things for him and then decided to try something on Mr Fantastic that Dobbin had posted on his blog a while back. When bringing the left hand across to match on the Bus Stop holds, I kept my left foot pasted on the ledge and then brought the right foot across and pressed it into the roof just above the LF. This allowed me to easily take my left foot off and place it on the good spike and then bring the right foot down on to the polished dink and do the first move on Bus Stop (totally removing the desperate leg swing I had previously been fighting with!) . To try and keep things positive, it was shoes back in the bag and down to Pete's Eats for cake and a coffee.

Really struggling with motivation at the moment with being injured and weak most of the time and unable to train as it results in aggravating the left arm. This means when I get out, I'm generally pretty crap and feel like I'm going backwards from last year as opposed to improving.

I might take a big break during World Cup time and hopefully this will clear up lingering injuries so I can start training afresh after. News of a new dedicated bouldering wall opening in Liverpool is fantastic and it can't come soon enough!

The turning point

2010-05-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

Having recently had a bit of time to spare, I read 9 out of 10 climbers by Dave Macleod cover to cover as well as 'How to climb 3 grades harder' by Mick Ward. One thing was glaringly obvious. I am pathetically unfit in terms of climbing more than 10 moves and have poor recovery.

To improve, I really need to get some fitness and figured the best way to work on a glaring weakness is to attack it head on.

Being a bit jaded and demotivated recently on bouldering days out, it is probably as good a time as any to mix things up, so I purchased a harness last week and today a rope seeing as I haven't owned one for a few years. Stage 1 complete!

I did one day out at Llanymynfach last year and managed to drag my way up a 6b+, 7a and soft 7b fully pumped on every one of them at the chains!

Wednesday I'm off to Kilnsey to start stage 2 and to see if I can find a 7b+ to climb. Getting the top of anything will be a major bonus and I'll no doubt feel uber weak watching John M, Dave P and Smooth Pete crushing all over the place!

Bank Holiday weekend

2010-05-03T12:09:00.001-07:00

I managed to get a 3 day vacation from the fully stressful job and went to probably my 2 favourite venues in the uk...

Friday 30th April

Me, O, Smooth P and the Hoob decided on the safe bet of the Cave due to the sketchy weather.

The warmup was going well with parisella's original, Bust Lip and Clever Beaver all done and I decided a brief lap of Lip Service was in order before going for the Broken Heart RP. I got out to the lip and was moving my right hand to the fingerjug when my left hand pinged off and I was sent hurtling downward. A loud slam and much cheek rubbing later and I could thankfully still move about with a bit of a limp (although weighting the right bum cheek was a no no).

I puntered up Broken Heart a couple times (I still find this fully desperate for a soft 7C+ but I think its more of a mental thing as its just a distraction from what i really want to get done and hence doesn't receive the effort it probably requires) and sacked it for In Hell.

First go and I was really struggling to get through the first moves. It was pretty warm, so the liquid chalk was broken out and try number 2 resulted in a power out at the move to the flake off the 2 pockets on R.A. A bit of a breather and I managed another go through to the same move but something was lacking (maybe caused by training the previous week and not resting as much).

In Hell was sacked off due to weakness and I moved on to try get some consolation ticks with the marvellous Dust Kick High going down. Ring of Fire High ended in failure at the crimps and attention moved towards the right lip of the cave. A bit of beta off Bobbins ensured Beaver Cleaver became more like 80% instead of 40% so I tried the sitter and failed after all the hard climbing due to a cut loose draining every last ounce of energy.

Smooth Pete got to the last slot on R.A. from the start going over for the pinch and Owen managed to get Clever Cleaver from the break, narrowly missing out on the full sitter.

Sun 2nd May

Me and O headed East into the tempest but the skies thankfully cleared a little as we reached Anston Stones. Mike arrived shortly after and we did a crag inspection. My 2 goals for the day of Ebola and Alpha were wet so this made things a bit more simple. A brief and inadequate warmup was followed by a desperately pumpy flash of Beta Blocker and a strong failure to do the first move of the sitter due to wetness.

As I worked the moves on Bullet again, trying to remember where to toehook to catch the fingerslot, Mike mauled his way up Dark Art and pretty much everything else including Magnum Eliminate, a massively morpho line to the left of Bullet.

After he had recrushed Bullet, I knew where to put the feet and it went down quickly! O should have sent but got drawn into trying the lefthand line.

After tea and scones we headed off past an absolutely stunning roof that isn't currently topo'd on the limestone cowboys gallery and I scoped out a summer project which takes in a lot of ground through a roof via some wonderful holds and big moves off a lot of foot clamps and body tension (In to the light)

We had a look at the Seaman staines area and most lines looked pretty full on (and maybe undergraded)

Then we arrived at Mecca. The Duke's buttress is definitely my favourite section of rock in the UK up there with the Zoo York/Ben's Groove area/Shelterstone and the Cave!

We worked some moves and the friction was prime due to a cold breeze coming through the tunnel. I managed to get Red Duke fired off fairly fast which left plenty of energy to try Filthy Duke. Owen worked the moves with me and after failing a couple times on the last hard move up to a right hand deadpoint... I finally got it (after barely catching the first move and captured on a phone with an embarassing scream to hold on to the RP crux).

Owen made some good redpoints on a RH link into Filthy from the Dark Lady start and it looks a great one to come back for as well as Duke's Peril which looks amazing if a tad scary.

Fontainepoo Part Deux

2010-04-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

After a week of nursing various niggles and a brief unadvisable last minute woody session...I returned with a large group of Scousers (as well as some token Beasts from Lancashire and Rotherham) to the magical forest of Fontainebleau.

Sun 11th April

We arrived at our wonderful gite in Chailly-en-Biere late afternoon and decided to hit Cuvier hard, with it being a joyous 3 minute drive away.

We warmed up on the start of the Red Circuit which featured some truly fantastic problems like Red 1 and Trou de Simon, as well as a desperate 5+ blue that took me about 4 attempts.

I made a beeline for Biceps Mou Roof and put on my fresh out the box 5.10 Projects that were a last minute impulse buy at work on Saturday. They felt super tight but had that broken in feel straight away.

I think my left arm must have recovered as I could now do the first move static that evaded me a couple weeks back. The rest fell into place and after greasing off the RH sidepull a few times, I locked it out static to the slopey shoulder and snatched my way up to the top.

As this went on Becki happened to piss up Picon Biere for her first forest 7a and then added the sitter for her first 7a+.

Dolph crushed Hypotheuse in about 2 goes and then Infidele and was trying the sitter to the latter.

As Dolph, Owen and Pete went on the deserted Carnage block I decided to run over to Aerodynamite. I met a guy called Raul there who was in Magic Wood last summer and happened to be the previous owner of Johnny the Dog. I had my first go and utilised Davey P's heel beta which made everything utter piss all of a sudden and I was stood up in the pocket only to slap with the wrong hand and slide backwards. Raul then crushed it and after a brief rest I got up it on the 2nd try. It was nice to get something done that had kicked my arse hard a couple years back!

We finished off on the Carnage block where Dolph then walked up Berezina, did the link into Carnage and then greased off the sitter repeatedly as it went really humid. I was getting shut down on the match on Berezina so went round back and tried La Balance. First go was good and as I brought my right hand up to the high sloper the left pinged off. Further goes finished much the same as it got harder to hang on to greasy holds. One to come back for.

Mon 12th

We hit up Apremont and warmed up just down from the Ju Jitsu block. I went off on a personal quest straight to Onde De Choc, brushed the holds, booted up and then did it first try. It felt about a million times better than last trip due to not being in the baking sun.

I got on Fil a Tordre to show Dolph how desperate it was and he agreed as I got spanked for the 3rd session on this 7a?!

There was plenty of action at Egoiste with several ascents and some near misses from not 1 but 2 people dropping off the top out.

A couple of people did Clin D'Oeil and Mark got up Hyperplomb after an epic to get over the bulge. I did a cool problem above this called Hueco Depart which was steep and spanny and we moved over to the other side of Central.

Owen flashed Faux contact and I did likewise just about. We then worked on the direct Full Contact and after about 5 or 6 different methods for the 2nd move, gave up and went and got a consolation problem of Happy Boulder. As most people tired of the climbing, myself, O and Mike went off to check out Crazy Horse at Apremont Ouest.

We got there and met some French guy who wanted to see beta before trying it. Me and O worked on 2 very different sequences and it eventaully succumbed to my left kneebar, right heel on rail sequence to get up and right again to the top holds. I thought the start was really brutal to get up and left in the crack to a decent pinch/sidepull but ok after this. The French guy then tried to copy but got a shut down after beta whoring for the previous 15 minutes!

I had a brief play on Sitting Bull but didn't fancy the topout, so bailed to meet everyone back at the carpark.

Tues 13th

I took a rest day feeling a bit battered from the previous days and followed Dolph around to try and get some actual climbing ascents on film, as the curse of the camera had worked to great effect on the first 2 days!

Me and Mark rocked up to meet the others at Imothep after briefly chatting to Neil H at the carpark and getting some directions. I had only been there a minute or 2 and shouted out the match beta for the penultimate moves, got the camera on and just caught him cruising it with ease.

The Beast of Rotherham also managed to see off Controle Technique after an almighty battle with blind alleys and the all day on-off showers that kept it nice and damp.

Owen climbed Renconnetre Plafonique with Andy capturing his girly screams of "be good..BE GOOD!" as he slapped blindly over the top to the mirth of many.

We had an amazing Chilli in the evening that Ste rustled up and I consumed my 3rd bottle of red in 3 days to keep up the strong drinking ethic.

Weds 14th

The rest day seemed to do the trick and I came out fighting with a brief warmup on some red's and Graviton and then to try Sale Gosse with my newly aquired right foot beta from vimeo. I pulled on to the first move with the mono and sidepull and sat over my right leg flagging deep, went for the left bi-doight splay and greased off. The holds received a good pounding with a towel and I used some liquid chalk. Another false start and my arms were finally warm. The first move was stuck and then the 2nd barely. I was having to adjust a lot on both holds as I got my left toe up into the pocket. I rotated and remembered to bounce the right foot up to a dish hold. All of a sudden everything felt instantly better and I could launch left hand up for the top. A moment of weightlessness and the right foot was still on... as was the left hand! I quickly matched and scrambled up in a Bradbury style to dispatch yet another nemesis.

The rest of the morning consisted of eating and heckling in equal measure. Si got agonisingly close to Graviton using the heel behind flake method. Fish head horribly overpowered it with his floundering beached whale technique and then made amends with a much smoother ascent of Jet Set.

The rabble headed over to Cul de Chien and found only a handful of French kids at Le Toit de cul de Chien.

I convinced Mark to go first and he got through to the lip hold only for his feet to cut early and he lost grip on the outswing. I went up next with the heckling of Owen whistling Z cars as he recorded it. Not to be distracted I got up to the RH mono to find it was actually a 2 finger jug. The left heel clamped on the polish, as the right foot flagged wide and I locked it out to the lip to find another fingerbucket, gained the jug over the lip and then campussed the next moves before a casual rockover (ignoring cries to french blow incase anything popped and made the flash safe).

Me and Dolph moved over to Le Autre Toit with Ste and Fish head along taking photos. He put the pressure on me by saying Arabesque is ok with beta as he flashed it with Andy Jennings shouting the numbers out. Time had taken its toll as he was unable to remember much and I spent about 15 minutes puntering it up. A kneebar pad was brought out to avoid my left leg getting wrecked and then it all clicked into place for Mike about keeping the left leg in for some extra hand moves. A good rest and I got through the steepness and stood up with my left foot on the Eclipse RH hold and right heel on the pocket shaking out the pump, before a wonderul rockover & mantle to the top!

I got down and had a good whitey before announcing I may as well have a little look at Eclipse as climbing hard tomorrow was a write-off.

5 minutes later and the moves were all done with the last move being a superb crossover/barndoor latch off a lovely pinch/sidepull. I was psyched and got through the roof only to find it hard to get the left toe just right. Dolph couldn't sit still watching a relative punter do all the moves fairly fast and warmed up trying the first moves.

Fast forward to about an hour later and I was lying on the ground feeling dizzy after having greased off or powered out on the last move about 5 or 6 times. Dolph hadn't faired much better having also dropped it with his fingertips at the hold. We eventually had to give in as it was too greasy and we were both battered.

We finished off at Gasthaus Unterslag where he made the terrifying leap and I bottled it. We both got up a great little quarried slab/arete called Dernier Angle just downhill and then got a lift back to the gite for an amazing all you can eat pizza night courtesy of Chef Fatneck.

Thu 15th

I chose to gamble on having another day off to fluke good conditions and send hard on Friday. We went early doors to Franchard Cuisiniere to the Karma area.

Mike made rapid progress on Karma hitting the 2nd right hand hold and then flicking his left heel up but kept sliding off the right hand due to bad temps and sunlight (as well as not being rested due to the Eclipse saga!)

Owen, Andy and Ste all got Bizarre Bizarre done from a sitter and we moved over to Magnifique which saw ascents from Kev, Pete and Ste also. Owen bailed off the top and aggravated his dodgy knee and lost the will to try again.

A bit of lunch and then over to Beatlejuice. It looked ok until people got on it and by the end of the session only Mike and Kev had got it done, commenting that it wasn't any easier than Jerry's Roof ...only 4 grades less!?

Ste got up Excalibur Direct to the left and we finished off up at Hale Bopp where several suitors got nowhere near the top and goaded me to get on it but I remained resolute to save skin for Friday.

Fri 16th

We awoke to the hottest day of the week by far and I was a bit gutted as we waited around for the Gite owner to pick up the keys and give us back the deposit.

We went for the most secure option of Cuvier with the cars full of belongings. I did a shocking 10 minute warmup and got straight on a very quiet Berezina. I did some pullups on the first holds and then got stuck in.

About 20 attempts and no matches later, I was defeated with a sore right arm from attempting to lock on a sloper of butter whilst bringing the left hand through to the good hold. As it got mad busy, we ran away to Cuvier Est.

Everyone ran around getting some mileage in and trying Festin de Piere.

Si did Duroxmanie which was really nice to see after his recent illnesses, injuries..etc. We did a couple more classics like the direct to Duroxmanie and me and Mike did the sandbag of Basses Frequences using various 7b sequences on this supposed 7a as well as a little gritlike arete downhill to the left in the Holly. I had a few goes on Michel Ange sticking the first move and getting a foot up inside but then feeling close to destroying my shoulder as I tried to lean into it, so sacked it off and dosed up on ibuprofen!

We bailed at about 3.30 to avoid the Paris rush hour and said goodbye to Kev and Luke who are over till next Tuesday. I hope the weather cools down a bit for them or it will need to be 6am starts to get up anything slopey.

A day out with the Captains of Crush and some cave action

2010-04-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

I managed to get some cover in work over the last 2 days to avoid mind numbing cabin fever and to try putting to use my recently aquired 'font skills'.

Sun 4th April

Strong Davey P arrived at the Ivory Towers around 10ish and we headed East through rain, sun and more showery rain but once at Hathersage it was looking promising.

We had a chill looking around the Outside Sale rails picking up a bargain Prana hoody and then set off to Burbage to hook up with Ed Robinson and their mutual friend John.

Me and Dave were a tad early and it was pretty wild up at the carpark with a lot of ominous cloud closing in around us but a promising wind drying things off. We decided to go warm up around the banana finger area only to be driven back about 100 metres down the path by gale force wind and horizontal rain daggers! We fought our way back to the car using the base pads as face protection and getting totally soaked from the waist down.

We started to drive off to go get a coffee in Hathersage only for the sun to break through and the sky turn blue all in a matter of 2 minutes. How surreal! Ed rang and we turned back to wait for them at the carpark.

Once John had arrived, we all decided to go Burbage West as it was out of the worst of it. We met some hero/madman who was attempting to ground up West Side using a small rucksack from the 80's, a bit of carpet and his pet hound to spot/run for help.

We tried not to watch and got on with the thorough warmup. I got psyched for The Nose, so Ed did a demo and it received the heavy beta flash. Strong Dave looked a bit sketchy but also claimed some kind of amnesia retro flash ascent as he may have done it before. I guess it gets harder to remember as the years go by! ;)

We moved over to West Side Story and made little headway until Ed had a breakthrough moment showing some sequence involving feet across to the right and gastons to get into the 2nd RH sidepull and the LH crimp. I managed it this way once but decided to stick to plan A which found me up at the same point and then catching the 3rd RH sidepull. I barndoored a bit but the LH stayed on the crimp. I tried picking the LF up to the obvious nubbin to dyno off and then everything pinged off.

A few more goes and everyone was a little concerned about taking off the left index finger tip, so we moved across to Breakfast.

Ed provided another demo and I sketched my way up another flash involving a nice grease off slap again move near the top. Dave had an epic and eventually got it done and John also fell off leaving his footlock in which could have been truly horrific but thankfully didn't cause any further drama.

We had a play on Famous Grouse but found it a wee bit greasy, Ed managed to shin himself and we went to Burbage Bridge.

We had a play on Rocket Man, shaving more and more skin off the Right hand until my current hero strong Dave P, put on his jetpack, polished his boots and floated serenely to the top, he even contemplated a 1 armer... than woke up and topped it out ;)

I struggled on Mermaid greasing down that RH plate hold. Dave did it first go with a double or triple (I lost count!) french blow. Dismayed, I turned to the liquid chalk and thankfully it held back the tide of grease just enough to get it done.

Ed had to rush off to a party with a nice fingertape bandage covering up a big palm flapper, so the rest of us went over to Banana Finger. Me and John got up the original first try, then I lanked up the direct and finished off with the Arete on the left which was lovely.

We finished off with a pint on the Little John and got back to Merseyside barely awake and aching all over.

Mon 5th April

I woke up feeling totally ruined and thankfully Mark and Chris agreed to a late start to go the cave instead of grit as my skin was still pulsating with blood at the surface!

We stopped off in Costa and got some revival juice which left me a bit too wired in the cave shaking like mad trying to warm up and struggling to apply liquid chalk at the start of In Hell.

To sum it up, I got a bit further every redpoint with the best attempt of the day being crossing over to the pinch before the finish slot with no energy and burning hands on the brink of blood letting. I also had a play on Clyde and managed to stick the cross under move for the first time (twice!), one go managing to switch the right hand back around to set up to throw out right into Trigger Cut holds only to be greasing out the big slot, raking more skin off.

Mark had a great session, bagging Parisella's Original and Lipstick righthand and Chris looked to be making headway on Left Wall traverse.

Other events of note were Mina making Broken Heart look like a path and Kook getting very close on The Wire, shut down only by the wet fingerjug grease off.

Sadly the week ahead is work everyday, as I was itching to get back on In Hell after a couple rest days to destroy. Sunday heralds a return trip to font, so I'll try to keep the chin up! ;)

Dans le Foret pt 1

2010-04-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well it was a lovely trip out in font with Mark and little Hoppo. Out of the 9 days we had out there, we climbed on 8 of them! Not a bad attempt considering the state of affairs as we left font on a very grey and showery Sunday afternoon, waving adieu to the recent arrivals.

I guess it's easiest for me to do a quick day by day summary with a pic or two for each day. The trip wasn't a crushing spree... more of a chilled return, getting used to climbing again after being either injured, having split tips or working too much the previous 3 weeks to have any kind of form going into it.

It was really enjoyable repeating some old classics and getting plenty of mileage in whilst showing the other 2 around some of my favourite venues as well as checking out new ones at the same time. It was pretty quiet wherever we went and mainly easy going foreigners to chat too (until the last couple of days when we met a couple of stereotypical bell ends from the uk - I must add they were not all bad, a couple of the Scottish guys we met at Gorge were very friendly!).

Sat 20th March

After arriving bleary eyed from a long drive down, we grabbed a couple hours sleep at the campsite and had a slow start to the day nipping to Carrefour to buy some supplies before heading over to Bas Cuvier to check out some problems seeing as it was raining. It cleared up a little bit, so we headed over to Rempart and ticked off the first 5+ in the forest l'Angle Allain, a great little technical arete that was good on both sides. We went back down and I did a lap of Duroxmanie which is absolutely superb. Mark should have done it but bailed near the top and Hoppo had a kick off after getting the shut down! ;)

The last problem we got on was La Mummery just over the way. I sketched up it before the camera could be set up and then Michael nearly did it before falling from the 2nd to last move getting his hand sequence a bit muddled. The rain then came down a bit more forceably and we went back home for the standard pasta, veg, chorizo and chopped chilli tea washed down with cheap beers! (30 for £9 euro)

Sun 21st

Apremont was the venue of choice and after the standard warmup on some classics blues we headed over to find Ju Jitsu wet which was a shame, Not to be deterred we turned around and ticked off lamentations before going around the back of the gigantic Ju Jitsu boulder to try jeremiades. I didn't realise it got a grade from standing and assumed it was a 6c from the left sitter, I overpowered it on my 2nd attempt cutting loose a couple of times and basically campussed/crawled up to lie out of breath on the top. I declared it to be a bit stiff at 6c and was relieved to find it got 7a+ from a sit when we consulted the book!

Next up was a visit to Hyperplomb which was fantastic but a bit puzzling on top. After falling off trying about 4 or 5 sequences I went around the corner and decided to give medaille en chocolat a quick go and managed to stick the top on the 2nd attempt, it's a really nice mix of delicacy followed by an unlikely catch as you fly up and out. A bit re-psyched, I returned to my original sequence on Hyperplomb and just managed to get the right foot up and in enough to stand on the obvious hold at groin height. A bit of slapping and it was in the bag.

We all ticked off the great La Lune and got a lap in on Science Friction before getting shut down on both Fil a Tordre and Onde de Choc. I got right up on top of Onde with the RH on the sloper but my left hand kept peeling off the thin sidepull in the sun. Most frustrating!

Mon 22nd

I was hoping to rest on the Monday but soon got keen to try and do an easy circuit at 91.1 as the others wanted to go there. We rocked up and the classics from 5+ to 6b were really enjoyable. We finished ticking the font essentials guide for the area and had a great baguette with several fillings.

We stopped off at Roche Aux Sabots on the way back and the others got stuck in to some problems as I decided to rest. I tired of this after about 15 minutes and went over to have a little look at Sally Goose. Psyched.

After faffing on the first move a couple of times I remembered what to do and found myself slapping at the top of the block. No matter which left shoe I tried, pushing off that left foot mono felt precarious and shit! I shinned myself from a foot pop twice in a row and gave up shortly after wondering if I'll ever make this move. (upon getting home and checking on bleau, I realised I kept my RF too low and should have bounced it up a hold to get more push and keep in contact when hitting the top!)

I went over and met the others at Le Tiroir and got a flash of Oblique, a burly start into a fun dyno to a tricky top out. They got shut down hard on Le Tiroir (a 6a featuring a crank and slap off an undercut mono!)

Last up was a trip to try red 25 the infamous l'Angle a Jean Luc. This time I was armed with some nice new Moccasyms which probably gave me a 0.01% improved chance over my old jet 7's. About 1 hour of solid effort and I somehow surmounted this nemesis utilising a shoulder wrecking palm edge mantle and a desperate deadpoint to a crimp below the top. This lowly 6c boulder was easily the hardest problem I did on the trip and took more attempts than nearly every other 7a-7c combined!

Tues 23rd

After the non restday rest, an aching team headed to Hautes Plaines. Mark destroyed Coquille on the flash which was most impressive after my epic on it a couple of years ago. I managed the low right sit link which was very fine indeed. Hoppo had another minor kick off... and we all ticked off lapin ou canard, a really fun roof up the hill a bit.

At Isatis main, there were masses of people from all corners of Europe but we reserved a ticket for le statique and the other 2 got it done whilst I took some snaps in between flashing Vin Rouge, an excellent dyno with a wild swing.

I got shutdown hard on rataplat, a 7b pillar that probably feels easier when not in direct sun and Mark did the classic double dyno thing that some fella climbs feet first on bleau.

We bailed to a quiet scene higher up and after a few goes and 1 split tip later, I managed to get l'Angle Ben's ticked. I had wanted to do this ever since I first visisted font in 07 and was psyched to get something done that is not exactly Parisella's style!

Plastikman was next up after a bit of a hike and also went down ok after a false start pullon. Mark looked good on it but gave up a bit early to save skin for the next day. We walked back towards the carpark and couldn't resist a quick go on el Poussif. I managed to get up on the pinch mantling the left arm and getting the right knee/shin on before twisting off and stacking it on to the sea of mats. The red flag was waved and we sacked it back to the car (with a brief 3 tries on Sur-Prises which was still greasy even in the dark!)

Wed 24th

I was really determined to rest today, so we headed to Cuvier and I brought along only 2 pairs of boots instead of 5. It was a busy scene with the first student arrivals and some local wads with their short shorts, pof rag and no pads ambling up some sketchy looking slabs.

After heckling little Hopski as he warmed up and got shutdown on Nescafe, we moved the pads under Marie Rose and watched him crush it first go, to the dismay of the several students who had just recieved a spanking! Good effort yoof'.

As the sky cleared and it got busier, we ran away to Rempart. I got bored of resting and warmed up on some 6b before getting Festin de Pierre 2nd go after an embarassing pullon and instant foot pop! I had to call in a bit of the overpower on the latter moves due to forgetting my glasses and being unable to spot any footholds!

The others ticked off some black problems while I chilled and we headed back to Cuvier as it began to go dark. Hoppo and Mark got close on Cortomaltese and Charcuterie respectively and I had a hard time trying to get the right heel to stick on Berezina. I reverted to the pull on and jump over the top method but found it impossible to stick the sloper. Lastly I tried a toe hook and instantly got across on to the sloper but then the toe ripped before an attempt to take it off in control could be made.

With desperation for a new tick, we ran over to the Biceps Mou roof. I tried this once and realised my left arm is still too weak to be of much use. Attention switched to Holey Moley and while the others started to fear boars and whores, I hauled my weak arse up it after receiving decent beta from a passing Swede, which felt more like the 7a it should be as opposed to my desperate 7b/+ method.

Thu 25th

It was the first day of really shit weather so we basked in the luxury of a lie in and didn't leave the campsite till about 2pm, bringing back wonderful memories of the wonderfully relaxed Magic Wood starts of last summer.

We decided to go check out the Cul de Chien hoping it would be fast to dry. A brief warmup was had on the head of the dog along with some blatant product placement photographs for mr Craven and we found our way to the roof. There was a group of unsociable Poles on it who weren't too keen on company so we played on the things to the right to get some blood in the fingers and waited patiently. About 30 seconds after they left, the sky opened and instantly soaked the top out. 2 minutes later and there was a stream of water coming over the lip as well as a storm blowing up sand into our eyes as we cowered underneath the roof!

Day over.

Fri 26th

More wet weather greeted us, so we went to Carrefour and had a leisurely start, buying some nice trousers in the decathlon sale rail and playing with all the apparatus whilst trying to avoid irking the staff.

It looked a bit better on the way out the supermarket, so we went to Gorge aux chats finding it fairly busy already.

We ticked off some excellent red problems from the essentials book like Sirocco, Gigi, dallain and maudite arete. I got a quick flash of Sa Pelle au Logis in before it pissed down for 20 minutes. We noticed the Rubis area was relatively unscathed by the rain, so rewarmed up on Travaux Forces and the others went off to find arachnee while I joined the 2 Scottish based Dave's on Rubis. After a fairly decent flash attempt, I found myself sat on my right foot trying to cross to the big pinch only to ping off violently. I stemmed the blood from the back of my right knuckles and then fell again at the same point, always leaning out too much. On the 4th go i decided to put the camera on and this extra motivation found me back up there feeling a lot more steady, I sat on my foot a bit closer in and stuck the pinch. Glory!

It rained again so we sat under Maudite arete and noticed it stayed dry. I decided to try the sitter (aka Tour d'Ivoire) and flashed it into the standup, cursed myself that I had wasted the flash as the top was soaked... then was relieved to be told by a French guy hiding under the adjacent roof that it began with the right hand lower as the FAist was not Crouch-like in proportions!

I got the move first try and then the heel popped a few moves later trying to slide the RH up to the good break. The rock dried up fairly fast, so I took a break and then had an all or nothing redpoint, getting into the standup before dismayingly powering out to the point where hanging on to two jugs was the living end! Hoppo heckled a bit and I nearly cried.

Sat 27th

The weather was a sack of shit. We walked around Elephant and then to the Dame Jouanne car park. It got worse so we decided to go to Bloc Age, the indoor wall near to Milly. As we sat outside it began to clear and I begged we go back to Gorge aux Chats which was about 5 mins away. Thankfully the others agreed and after a brief warmup I got back on Tour d'Ivoire and destroyed it first try of the day totally flash pumped! (when I say destroyed, I mean cut loose twice, whimpered and blew wind out my arse whilst barely avoiding dabbing the rock and pads by a matter of centimetres and snatched my way up jugs to victory!).

It was possibly my first 7C in font, so a nice one to get done too, being good moves and aesthetic - just a shame about the encroaching block and the finger numbing undercut crimp you crank on in the roof.

We did various controversial versions of Greve des Nains and moved to 95.2.

We met some hostile Scots who blanked us save for 1 at Retour aux Sources so kept walking to Duel Dans la Lune block.

A brief play on Rudeboy and I thought the last move was ok going LH up. From the start it proved a different matter as I dropped this last move about 5 times crying in desperation as to how it could possibly merit a mere 7a! I then did the move going right hand up as a rockover slap and after a bit more puntering finally latched it as two of the aforementioned scots turned up to geg in.

Duel dans la lune went down ok and we left them to it, moving on to Retour. I watched little Hoppo have a go and then attempted the retro flash using about 100 intermediate holds and fell to the floor in a right state, realising this was not the way I tried it last time!

Mark showed the way with a more direct method and I soon topped it out... what a great set of moves.

Little Mike got so so close but couldn't quite get his left foot up on to the big crimp to stand to the top. We went on a mission, found Ange Naif and it started to spit, then rain... then piss down. Day ender.

Sun 27th

It rained heavily, so we sacked it back to Liverpool.

It was a fun trip with plenty of good easy classics ticked as well as something I really wanted to do in Rubis and a surprise 7c that wasn't even on the shortlist of things to try.

The other guys had a good time getting to visit a new area nearly every day and also getting their first 7a's in the forest.

There is a fair bit of footage, so either myself or Mark will have to convert these annoying .TOD files into something useful that can be edited and made into a short flick on vimeo!

It was nice to get back to font and climb on amazing rock, just a shame that it took about 6 days to feel like I could climb again after having less than ideal preparation in the run up.

Font training

2010-03-11T02:47:00.000-08:00

After growing back the skin on my palm and overcoming a nagging left arm injury over the last 2 weeks, I was fully fearing a lack of time on rock pre font may lead to climbing like a Mills on ice.

Luckily for me, the strongest man in Merseyside was keen to hit the grit and with his generous van space, we could load in pads until we got bored!

Tuesday 9th March

After a brief word with the Honeymonster, we headed to Stanage and warmed up on the excellent hourglass block where I schooled him on a slab to take round 1 ;)

Over to Brad and luckily there was a bit of a breeze coming through on the right which kept things cool enough to not feel like we were squeezing blocks of butter. We both had a few goes limbering up the left leg a bit until the heel placement was easy. Dave made fast progress in catching the left hand over but struggled to get the heel to stay in place when trying to crank over it and balance.

I made no headway whatsoever trying to go left hand over and felt really bunched/off balance with this method.

40 mins later and Dave was consistently pissing the first 2 moves but getting no further with a bit of an ache in his right shoulder before the fatigue set in. I decided to change approach and managed to go right hand up really easily and hold this position a couple of times but struggled to match as I didn't leave much space for my left hand and my skin was getting a bit too thin...

Honeymonster showed up and pissed the first 2 moves just failing to match the ramp! Then it was downhill progress, so we went round the corner to try The Storm.

It felt like the living end to me as I kept wetting up the holds, so wrote off the day and let them get on with it. Steve got really close a couple of times but Dave suffered the butter skin too.

We moved once more uphill to find Help The Aged guarded by a snow trench, rigged up some interesting pad arrangement and then proceeded to punter until I realised it was easier to hang it and just campus as opposed to using a left toe on anything. Before I could get it in the bag my skin went even worse and I gave up after sledging downhill on the pad for a few metres taking out a few bags and downjackets en route!

It was time for Merseyside's strongest to put me back in my place and he monstered it. Honeymonster then caught the hold but decided to step on to the cornice behind and invalidate it, grasping defeat from the jaws of victory.

Wednesday 10th March

The weather was looking a bit iffy as we drove out of the grimy town of Huddersfield but as we turned towards Otley there were blue skies and sunshine was breaking through the clouds!

The warmup was good fun messing about on the slabs downhill from the Great Flake and I was chuffed to show Merseyside's strongest how to slab climb by doing the full traverse L->R (All this cave training and I still seem to be better on slabs than anything overhanging!).

We did the fantastic chickenhead problems and the scary wall to the left above the shit landing. I didn't fancy standing on tiny pebbles in my Mocc's so dynoed up to the fingerjam with Dave looking on in horror. He then repeated in fine style by actually using his feet!

Up the hill and into the shade, the rock felt so much better than my last trip up here with Matty D. We fully patiod the area with about 8 mats and Ben's Groove became a safe prospect.

A couple of warmup goes on the first move and I managed to hold the crossover, get the pocket out right, left foot up and then rocked into the high sidepull but my foot was too low and I slid down the vertical sidepull to the deck. Next go and I brought my left hand over to match near the pocket, got the left foot higher and this time had the height to utilise the sidepull. I fearfully sketched my way up to the top. What an amazing problem.

I mocked Dave's lucky Dragon charm off Steve... 'Rich 1, lucky dragon nil', then he fully crushed it next go to retain his crown. Steve kept pissing the first moves but didn't seem to fancy the top bit so we moved right to Secret Seventh.

The holds felt sharp on my super thin skin and we were not making much progress till suddenly I found the right body position, went static with the right hand to the pinch and then dragged my right toe across the wall to slow everything down, floated up the left toe on to the obvious nubbin and started rocking up. I was about to release the left hand off the grim slopey crimp when it decided to remove itself and I hit the mats hard with a numb left hand and lots of blood! I had torn the whole left little pinkie pad off and it was flowing.

It took a while to stem the flow then tape it up tightly. We were all suffering a bit from bad skin so moved over to Ju Ju Club. Dave and Steve managed to remember the top out and I got this ok on the 2nd attempt from matched on the good holds. It took a few minutes of us swinging out on to the pads before I found the sweet spot for the right foot to clamp under the roof and I could get out matched with ease. One casual attempt saw me lose all body tension and fail on the move up to the first sloper. I retaped the finger properly and then got it done with a bit of a scream on the final slap to make sure! Another class problem.

We decided to bail with aching arms and poor skin all round and had a brief chat to Dobbin as he warmed up near Fork Lightning Crack. He said he was on his way up to try link Zoo York, we wished him luck and then Crawled back to Merseyside in a long queue of traffic!

It was quite good to get out two days in a row on the grit and to climb 2 great problems. It almost felt like I was getting used to climbing on this devil's rock and could do with another session next week to get the skin roughed up and ready for font on the 20th!

A brief return to Yorkshire

2010-02-23T13:35:00.001-08:00

Thoroughly psyched from Saturday's lovely day out, we headed East once again to sample the delights of ice cold grit.

Caley
It looked well dark from the road but on my insistence, we headed up the hill to find Blockbuster pretty primo save for the topout slab foothold which was easily towelled.

A variety of interesting eliminates on the roof just below the block were contrived and we decided to finish the warmup on Blockbuster itself.

Things started badly with a lot of failure to grasp holds and then finding it desperate to move with the left foot up. We slowly got into it and before long both had a preferred sequence, me jumping off the grim pocket fingerlock to the crimp and Dave utilising the pinches (both to jump off for left hand and catch with right hand.

I thought I may get away with carrying an injury on my left arm (had to stop after a 20 min session warming up indoors on Monday yet again with massive pains down my arm), but after 1 decent go of catching the crimp, foot on, left hand into sidepull crimp and the mother of all power screams... I dropped the high flakeline and with the failure came a lot of pain in the left arm compounded by blood letting through the back of the fingers!

Emery had turned up in the meantime and found my failures hilarious. Fortunately he didn't nip in for a quick lap to make it a truly awful experience ;) Dave P, merseyside's current strongest man of the moment basically made it look like a path several minutes later. It was indeed a great effort.

Almscliff
We stopped off for some pies at the farmshop and headed up t'Cliff to meet Steve again as he warmed up on the Keel. I went over to Patta's arete dosed up on Ibuprofen for something more crimpy and less army. My total butter skin made it impossible to make any progress, as I continually greased on the holds in minus 2 winds?! Attention switched to the dyno thing to the right which went down once I got rid of my flat shoes and smeared with the Teams which worked right away, strange.

Back over to the Keel area and I noticed the fairly good looking line that took the Cherry Falls crimp with the left and bust out to the sidepull before going for the top break. Go 1 ended in going for the wrong part of the sidepull too low down. Go 2 was a stretched out slap at the top break and thankfully go 3 was a casual lap to the top just in time before my left index tore in half!

I Stopped while ahead as the arm started to feel a bit achey again and watched Steve try the Real Keel. Got a couple snaps and then went up top to spot Dave on Stu's left only to come into some fierce ice winds of death. Bail was the first thought that sprung to mind... but undetered I sprinted over and gave Dave the beast the tiny bit of encouragement he needed. He sketched his way to the top looking slightly less steady than on Blockbuster (no photos as the spot was preferred!) Great to see another 7b+ crushfest during the week.

Another pint in the Hunters was most welcome, with the open fire bringing us back to life and able to feel various limbs again.

Going to have to take 4-5 days off and really let this left arm recover as I don't fancy turning it into a long term niggle where I'd be holding back in font or having to do slabs for 8 days till my toes bled.

Glorified uphill walking

2010-02-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

Is how I have often thought of gritstone climbing. My opinion has changed a bit this weekend as I spent a thoroughly enjoyable day out in Yorkshire with Dave P and Steve Honeyman.

Ilkley

We met up at the back of the calf and had a good warmup on the woody style warmup problems. I got spanked on most of these so decided to head round the corner for my goal of the day, Ringpiece.

It was steep, had big holds and looked both reachy and burly, perfect! Thoughts of an easy flash were going through my mind so I made sure every hold was chalked and the ring was dry! A chalk up and a stretch then into action as I got the fat pinch, wedged a toe in and came into the undercut, feet planted and lunge to glory... only to fail and hit the mat. Should have tried a bit harder!

A couple more tries and it went down without a hitch getting stood up above on to a snow covered block. I decided retreat was the best option and reversed to the lip.

Dave crushed it in a similar fashion soon after and Steve got close before making the decision to get on the main goal.

We popped over to Curious Yellow wall and it looked pretty luminous on top. I decided to warm up for Curious by crushing the simple looking arete to the left only to receive the hard shutdown for the next hour or more! It felt a bit glassy on the holds but was probably just our general punterdom at play.

I had a handful of goes on Curious getting stood up on the thin RH undercut and trying to find the correct place to wrap the left toe in order to come over to the small LH intermediate crimp (before you lunge to the pocket/edge). Got close on 1 try on this move but no cigar. Steve got to a similar position a few times which was quite impressive as I reckon it is way harder to get standing up without the long reach and having a bent arm to pull in on. One to go back to for sure.

T' Cliff

With the light starting to fade we sped over to the cliff and climbed the fantastic Matterhorn arete that i had shamefully never done! I then almost had an epic on the 5C problem to the left of this which felt fully hard.

Dave suggested a quick look at Matt's roof and with our literal sea of pads (about 8 between 3 of us) We just about made it appealing. It looked pretty amazing and something I could do. So we booted up and I watched Dave have a go like the beta whore I am.

First go was a near miss of catching the hold. 2nd go was going past it and 3rd go, it was in the bag. A truly lovely basic board problem.

A final dash as the stars came out over to the Demon Wall Roof area.... Dave crushed Stu's Roof LH all the way to being stood up above the lip and then fell off due to a total lack of light making it a case of braille climbing!

An athletes diet of a pint in the Hunter's bar was followed by a kebab and some more pints in the metropolitan town of Huddersfield.

Sunday morning

We opened the curtains at Steve's and it had totally fucked it down with snow! Donnelly rang to say he had bailed the cave with the Mills. We had a lazy morning of coffee and watched some psyche which made me long for dry stable weather that seems widespread in a lot of the US!

We attempted to leave around 2ish and Dave's van required a jumpstart to let us limp back to Merseyside, tired but keen for the return leg on Tuesday (weather permitting).

Stepping it up

2010-02-18T01:14:00.000-08:00

In the slow build up to another font trip, I have been keen to get out to new venues to try and diversify my climbing from doing redpoints on In Hell.

Sunday 14th

Went over to the Wirral and met Andy and Becki at Green Lane (aka Hell), and we shot off towards what looked the best option in a sunny Llanberis pass. The sky was bright blue and the sun was wonderful. As we neared the A55 exit, it had already clouded over and the rain was getting steadier.

We got to Llanberis and it was grimness. A quick brew in Petes and we headed into the pass to check things out. There was a team huddled under Jerrys Roof and nobody else at Roadside. The rain was only light, so we got a bit of a warmup on the roadside face with only myself enjoying the wet topout practice that required a cool head.

Rather than ring Doyle and beg for entry to the Mill, we decided to go check out Elephantitus Cave. It was a bit brighter over the other side of Pen Y pass and by the time we had walked in to the cave it had stopped raining and brightened up a little.

A bit of brushing and hold fondling and I was pretty psyched. The first moves on Elephantitus were a joy rolling into big pinches and then the slightly unnerving throw to the sloper off the matching crimps. Luckily my hand stuck and the heel-toe stayed in, matching was ok and I just about caught the break above to get the flash in the bag.

Andy had a good go at the flash but didn't enjoy the crimps too much as he had ben out at Wimberry with Fatneck on Saturday and had no tips! Becki did most of the moves but struggled on the reach out left as well as the slap to the sloper. It was good to see her actually climbing and looking vaguely psyched for a change!

Next up was Going down on an Elephant which looked nice and basic. I thought I could get the flash in the bag, so didn't really worry too much about the sequence. I pulled on and crossed over to the flatty edge, got the lock on and matched the right foot into the starting hold whilst flagging past with the left. Looking up and left I realised I was miles away from the pinch/sidepull on Elephantitus and was stuck under my right arm! I held the lock for what seemed an eternity and finally tried to jump sideways only to land flat on my side! Fail.

Slightly bemused, it was time to look properly. Becki pointed out the obvious ticked intermediate 2 finger crimp and this proved to be the key. Next go and I was across up into the slap to the sloper only to change my Elephantitus beta and use the low pinch to go for the sloper instead of the crimps I had used 5 minutes ago. This ended in a horizontal deck out banging my right heel hard on a rock and getting a bruised arse! I fueled up on some banana and got it done next go without any problems.

I started to look at Tusk and then the heavens opened causing all of the lip to rapidly turn into a small waterfall as the rain came down the slab above. We bailed to V12 for a coffee and then on to a nice pub on Ollies recommendation (just at the turnoff towards the Beacon). Going against my performance related alcohol plan for 2010 I treated myself to a pint (the usual requirement being a new 7C). I thought I could earn it on Tuesday instead!

Tuesday 16th

After resetting and testing the step wall at work, I was a bit knackered 3rd day on. The weather dictated the cave as the only option and I wasn't my usual psyched self. As we got nearer to the Orme, the Sky was blue and the sun shone down. It was glorious!

The warm up felt ok as it was nowhere near as bitter as it had been over Christmas and January. We met Dave Pinnington and Andy Farnell in there and everyone seemed keen to crush something. I couldn't face redpointing In Hell in a fatigued state so chose to try something new which would allow more excuse for failure and keep it fun. Dave was workiing Broken Heart, so I joined him and Pete Chadwick on this. It took a couple of tries of the heel-toe to make it work and when it finally did I managed to fluke my way through to the rail and across into Clever Beaver only to fall off coming into the undercut after catching the sloper. Total power out but quite pleased at getting that far.

A bit of a rest and another go. I got to the break and for some reason decided to go for the shorter link into Beaver Cleaver forgetting that it is pretty desperate and failed to even catch the initial throw for the lip!

Pretty knackered by now, I thought it would be good to try and punish the body, so got the mats under In Hell and started to warm up again as it had gone freezing and the fingers and toes were suffering. A couple of false starts remembering body positions and I got across part 1 into RA flake, across the pockets and stepped off feeling boxed, with numb fingers.

Rather than be dismayed at failing, I decided to try repeat Trigger Cut. The first moves were still ok thankfully but I failed to feel good on the slap to the shothole once again! It's a bit of a puzzle really as it felt ok last year when I got it done but have never been able to hold since. It must be a subtle body position that I have not yet remembered and needs addressing if I am to try and get Halfway House done. Speaking of which...

I decided to try and link in having only done it once in the past by fluke. Rather than just press the left toe in and bring the right foot around straight into the heel, I managed to climb off the Lou F ramp into the TC start holds, keep the left foot on the Lou F ramp and bring the right foot out and toe hook the Greenheart undercut. Releasing the left foot and pulling in felt ok and I got the left foot up onto the start foothold of TC. The right heel went up and the left foot flagged. The Trigger in my hand... then nothing left in the tank!

It was a great way to end the session climbing as far as I had before into TC from both hands on the Louey ramp in a state of knackeredness. I don't think it will be an issue to get into the slap for the shothole move from the start after a good rest day but that move is going to need sorting out soon (without resorting to kneebars!) before I can consider it as being a realistic goal.

I think I am addicted to the cave and can only hope it translates a bit to font for things like Eclipse, Biceps Mou, Aerodynamite..etc

Back once again

2010-02-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

To the Barrow of Trow with Strong Smiley Dave, he of the silver mane.

As we headed up the M6 in glorious sunshine and clear skies... our concerns briefly grew when we started to get a bit of light rain outside Lancaster. Luckily there was no need to worry as temps were good and more importantly the Shelterstone was bone!

A quick warmup showing Dave all the classics on Red Wall went smoothly but for some reason he wasn't that inspired and wanted to make haste to some large boulder we passed on the way in.

I recognised it almost instantly and threw the regulation laps of Funk phenomena, Vitruvian (getting a massive random palm flapper in the process on my LH!?) and Pit Problem. Dave crushed; getting the funk, burling the pit problem and then finally grasping defeat from the jaws of victory by dropping the TOP of Vitruvian man (the big jug!). I was impressed by his ability to get things done fast (something the Crouch is unfamiliar with... as I prefer to piss the moves in overlapping halves then fail to link things for months).

I had one go of Iron Man and got into the stand holds from the shitter, only to find I was buttering that pinch all over in spite of it being Zero degrees C! I decided to sack and focus, went round back and after 2 near misses, brawled my way up Texas Hold Em for a very satisfying nemesis problem tick! (The list has now shortened to T Crack, Handy Andys and Wavelength!)

Flush with success I tackled the 6C/V5 groove which has always felt the living end. I recalled a vision me and the Donnelly had at the end of last session and with fresher arms it went down after a couple of false slaps at the top. This left a nice link to tidy things up and it went down without a hitch from the Iron Man sitter.

The warm down involved doing the wheelbarrow moves into the groove but my bad skin shut down the redpoint, greasing off the pit problem setup into the slap up.

Fatneck's Birthday Bash 2010

2010-01-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

Sat 30th Jan

We had a good laugh this weekend with around 20 people cramming into some vehicles and hitting the Ysgo hard. Sadly we went from blue skies and sunshine into a tempest of freak weather.

It was snowing at Sea level covering the boulders and then melting instantly to make it a bit tricky to climb anything. This happened on and off for a few hours while we chilled and finally got some climbing in with about 2 hours of daylight left.

Dolph was working the Fred Nicole project which looked ok from a distance but clearly brick hard when you actually feel the holds and positions that are required to link said holds!

Me and the Maskell beast were a bit gutted about Tide of Dreams being soaking wet and off the menu as we didn't have much else to get on with.

There were some good ascents of problems with Smooth Pete crushing Perrins Blind crack from a sitter and Ben show ponying his way up Incredible shaking man with immaculate technique ;)

It was nice to repeat these sitters and also Truth sds. It was great to see Jamie and Gruff there and especially to see Jamie utterly piss Truth (the first time I have ever seen him complete a boulder problem, clearly the Mill training is paying off!)

An old nemesis was also retro flashed, the spectacular Really Cool Toys from a shitter. What a line.

Sat Evening

We went the Chippy in Abersoch and had what can only be described as whales in batter on a sea of chips. it was nice and greasy and helpd absorb the pints from next door.

Back to the bunkhouse and it mostly involved eating chocolate, drinking vino and playing with Lego as well as crushing Fatneck's crossword (despite having to correct some atrocious spelling errors from previous attemptees).

Sun 31st Jan

We got up very hungover on the whole and watched it rain and hail for a good couple of hours. Most of them decided to risk the ysgo whilst team psyche went to check Elephantitus. As we drove through thick blizzards it was clearly not going to be an option (at the risk of benightment), so we continued to Llandudno.

We got some smacky food at the Asda as well as strong £8 lumberjack coats and went for some scran at a local cafe that had horrible 70's faded pink wallpaper with flowers on. It was all very league of gentlemen inside and it was a relief to make it out to the cave and back to sanity.

I kept going white but decided to punish the body more and climb it out the system. The warmup went well and before I knew it, I was eyeing up the finishing hold on In Hell only for my left hand to slide off wet after picking up a loadon the wet undercut pinch. Gutted but also amazed I fell to my knees and dry heaved a bit before calming down.

I'm psyched out my mind that In Hell is already a possible next sessioner (avoiding being 2nd day on with shit skin and a hangover and it could go well!)

At Last!

2010-01-28T02:00:00.000-08:00

This week has been the highlight of 2010 so far with Monday's cave session ending in success on Pit of Hell after so many failures to get both hands matched on that uneven slot.

Sunday 24th Jan

The weather was dire and looked ripe for condensation on the coast, so myself, Mark and the Gibbon headed to Tom Sugden's City Block in Leeds. First impressions are that it is a bit underwhelming when compared to walking into the Depot but after an hour of circuiting we found the problems were excellent. The setting is equal to that of anywhere I have been and will definitely be going back.

Next visit I will avoid trying to do all of the greys, yellows, greens..etc before attempting the Salmon World Cup problems as I found them utterly desperate after doing ~50 problems beforehand!

Monday 25th

Ken rang me up on Sunday evening and was psyched to get out. I had intended to rest feeling a bit tired from The City Block day but thought I may as well go the cave with him and potter about.

To my surprise I managed Pit of Hell relatively quickly and had plenty of energy in the tank at the end which is no doubt a result of doing many, many failed laps.

I had said at the start of the year I would only treat myself to my wine rack for each 8a tick, but rather than getting stuck in when home, I decided to put it on ice until Tuesday eve.

Tuesday 26th

I went back to the cave the next day with Dave Pinnington (aka Smiley Dave) and we had a decent workout, as the cave was in even better nick than Monday.

Dave got to the end of Pit of Hell but didn't quite manage the match due to him losing his finishing sequence a few times (something I sorted out only on the last go of my previous session!).

I thought it would probably be wise to look for a distraction from anything heading into rockatrocity...

I had a couple of brief attempts on Cave Life but found that my skin was too thin when matched and getting my feet across. My hands just kept making the holds go black and I kept sliding off in frustration. Third day on Crouch skin is probably up there with the worst in terms of butter production!

Seeing as everything else was pretty much out, it was back to sitting in the dirt at the In Hell/Life start. I have managed to get through to the RA start a couple of times before but never found it particularly easy. Being tired after no rest for 2 days previous, I didn't expect much and was quite relieved to find it ok, doing 3 laps into RA one after the other with short rest times. I was worried about getting a bit weak lately by just doing laps on a long problem and no real strength training.

If I can get it in the bag this year it would amazing and hopefully it won't suffer the downgrade anytime soon. It would be great to go up another grade on last year but also finish this line of resitance out from the back of the cave and improve as a climber so I can get on things in Magic Wood this summer and not feel unworthy of trying them.

Next weekend

This weekend coming should be a good laugh as there is a 20 strong crowd of Merseysiders and friends heading to the Ysgo for Si's annual birthday bash. I went a couple of weeks ago with Ben and Ken, so ticked off what I wanted to get done already, meaning this should be quite relaxed unless the temps are good and I get psyched to try Tide of Dreams. Hopefully Dolph can provide the beta first hand and my skin will withstand more than a couple of goes!

Cold Snap

2010-01-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

I'm sure everyone else has been enjoying getting out a lot over the winter period... apart from the fact it has to be cave based or at the Churnet to find rock with dry finishing holds!

Jumping about at the Churnizzle!

It may be a new year but the goals remain pretty much the same... get strong as hell and try and finish of things below my limit that are taking an age to box off.

Pit of Hell has been dragging on to the point that it is boring to climb it and drop the last move 15+ times in a week, so a break may be needed to try some other things and then go back to it once the temperature gauge changes back in to positive numbers!

A bit of failure is good for the soul??

http://www.vimeo.com/8413501 is an amusing little number of one of the closer attempts going dismayingly wrong .

I've updated my goals/aims for the year and they largely reside in a certain polished limestone roof which is fortunate with our less than stable climate.

Things I am psyched for this year are:

- Sorting a car
- Going to Fatneck's Birthday Bash at the end of Jan
- Visiting Tan Y Grisiau
- Going to Font in March
- Going to Switzerland/Italy in Summer
- Fluking an 8A+ anywhere would be nice (more likely in Switzerland!)
- Ticking half the Hit List!

Hope anyone reading this diatribe had a good Christmas period and saw in the new Year without as viscious a hangover as I took to the cave on Friday. Whiteying in the car under a pile of duvet jackets whilst others crush on cold, dry lime is not my idea of fun.

p.s. Went to the Depot again today, what a fucking amazing place. I can't fault it other than the fact it took 2 hours to get blood circulating in my feet today! Keen to go back and crush a certain orange problem that was crypt-like perfection on every move.

Nothing much going down!

2009-11-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

It has been a fairly uneventful last few weeks since the excellent trip to Bude in October.

I've left my part time job in Cotswolds for what will hopefully prove a more enjoyable one working for the new V12 shop in the Liverpool climbing Wall. It should be good to finally have a decent outlet for crushing apparel and equipment without having to make a mission over to Beris!

I've finally got my driving theory test out the way too after having turned up fully psyched only to have forgotten the paper counterpart and told I'd lost £30 and had to rebook it and pay a further £20 if I couldn't find the bit of paper! Luckily it was found and the test was fairly easy when I got in there.

It will be a grim few weeks of having to actually work a lot to afford finishing off the lessons required and getting the practical done, which will no doubt prove tougher than the multiple choice touchscreen.

I've had a few nice trips out on the grit getting some good problems like the Keel, Underhand and Brass Monkeys all ticked off in a session each (having played on them in the past). I don't think I have developed any grit feel as such, just an aptitude for overpowering steep things! I was probably most psyched to tick off an old nemesis from last year in Syrett's Roof which used to feel desperate, then was suddenly piss when I tried it in non greasy conditions :)

This leaves 1 true grit nemesis problem left in the shape of T Crack! I feel I am ok in arm strength/campus wise and generally climb 90% of the time in roofs so really can't understand the problem with this. It's been well over a year since I went on it, so hopefully the next visit will bear fruit and I can get over the road to Robin Hood's for Ben's Wall which looks good and definitely doable.

The cave has been a bit hit and miss over the last month, Cave Life went down really easily from the flake and the wobbly jug but I kept puntering it up with my feet and hands on left wall, so switched attentions back to Pit of Hell. First go back on this and I was yet again dropping the finishing slot.... then gradually going backwards again by not getting the flake right off the pockets and greasing off the wet 3rd pocket and undercut which seems to have developed a permanent river down it.

Today myself and 6 other keen Merseysiders went down on John's advice via Doylo's beta and it was a fairly bad call as after the first hour of climbing around the wet bits it all started to condense out as we were consumed inside a maelstrom of shit!

Thankfully... out of these dark moments comes a beam of radiant light, where I managed to climb from the In Life start all the way across the arch only to miss the toe catch on left wall and fall off! I'd never made it to matched on the wobbly jug before from the In Hell/Life start, so this was kind of a major breakthrough (all the sweeter for having to do it on slippery holds!).

The weather is looking really bad for the next week, so I'm going to put the time in indoors, working some power endurance in the crypt roof, so I'm ready to crush Cave Life/Pit of Hell and then In Life/In Hell will be on.

Coastal shenanigans

2009-10-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a short trip away to the Culm Coast with my hero and mentor Dolph Lundgren and his long time spotter and stick fetcher supreme, Vixen.

We initially intended a trip north of the border to Torridon but with the horrendous looking blue sheet of epic rain, we had the luxury to change course to Bude, due to the wonders of a camper van which negates the need to worry about accomodation :)

Day 1
We headed down to Northcott which was a 5 minute walk from where we were staying and made a beeline for Red Quinnie. Mike had done this before but struggled to remember quite what he did for a short time. I pulled on and tried my hardest to flash it and made decent progress until the cut loose at the lip. He sprung into action and dispatched shortly after and I realised the error of my ways, changing to a solution and making the heel stay in to get it in a couple more goes.

We headed back towards the van and climbed the wonderful pinch problem which took me more attempts than Red Quinnie much to Mike's amusement!

The next stop was Hartland Quay which had a bit more of an interesting approach scramble. We went to the Carnage wall and had a chill for a few mins. Conditions were perfect and after we both did Carnage quickly, we had a play on Supercede, Tom's new problem to the right of Carnage. After working out the moves, Dolph destroyed it in 2 goes, although he looked like he was about to come off the last couple of moves to my utter terror! I struggled to get the crossover with the left hand and feeling lethargic, decided to go and check out Ache Ball.

We sped across and saw that the tide was coming in fast. I got psyched and had a few goes managing to do the moves in bits. Mike bailed with Vixen over the rocks as the sea closed in. I gave myself a short rest and knew I would only have 1 go today or face having to swim. It was smooth until the jump at the end and my heel came off a bit early and i missed. I pulled back on and climbed it from 1 move down and knew it would be done next time.

Day 2
Day 2 was a day of great vengeance. We headed straight to Hartland again, warming up on some fantastic problems in the Trench area. I went over to Ache Ball and we were shocked to see other people climbing! I managed to punter the start a couple of times before crushing it into the ground. It felt pretty easy but really suited my style of steep, decent holds, some heel work and a bit of dynamics.

The next stop was across the Quay and down a sketchy slab of rock using a fisherman's line. We had a good look around and came to the conclusion that Hartland roof really was this underwhelming looking roof above a bulge! I got some fuel while Mike tried the moves. I put my shoes on and flashed both the roof and what we think is Brutal Spoon next to it. The moves are quite nice through the steepness and very similar to the climbing at Breck Road on the majestic Orme. We don't have a clue how they were ever graded 7c+ and 7b+ respectively but assume either holds have improved or Si Young was a midget!

We went back to finish in the Carnage area and Mike got Corridors of power first go. I struggled on the start and after tiring myself out working it out, proceeded to drop it 2 moves from the end. I felt destroyed and my arms hurt so we got out of there as the sea gave us little time for error yet again.

Day 3

With the good forecast proving to be a big fat LIE, we stayed local and went back to Northcott Mouth. On a tip off from Tom, we found a well hidden line called J Lo which climbs amazingly. Needless to say Mike crushed and I had another epic on it. Luckily the tide was out and the rain heavy so I had time to rest and eventually got to the top!

The weather cleared up and we headed over to check out the project left of Red Quinnie. I lay on the mat feeling near to death with bicep tendonitus style pain in both arms. Dolph battled the wet and seeping rock to force a line through this section of roof and made a nice power scream on the cut loose on my recommencation all captured in glorious 1 megapixel cameraphone quality! I obviously got psyched and made rapid progress on the problem only to grease off the very temperamental hold twice in a row.

Mike pottered about climbing lots of good looking lines in a corridor whilst I continued my mental breakdown and furious drying antics under this low roof. As the tide came creeping up at us once more, I was facing a 3rd end of day shutdown in a row on a problem I should have climbed a couple of hours earlier! I pulled on feeling tired and clearly not rested but had the moves fairly dialled in by now and got to the crux which I cruised through it only for a foot to pop... I lost count of the screams but somehow held on whilst my feet failed to get back in contact until I eventually controlled it and shook my way to the top almost dropping the last 4-5 moves. Epic.

Once again it was an emergency scramble as the sea engulfed the Red Quinnie roof and another steep plod to destroy the legs.

It was a great way to end the trip, climbing the hardest problem in the worst conditions, aching all over and almost delirious with fatigue! I was inspired yet again by Mike's ability to work something out and dispatch it within a go or 2 (something I clearly need to get the knack of).

If anyone reads this, I highly recommend a visit down to the Culm area as the rock is amazing, with a disproportionately high number of classics for such a small climbing area.

I have zero photos and the 1 short video on my camera but am unsure how to get them off without a cable.

Swiss recollections and Cave Season

2009-09-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Swiss Recollections

Having waited an eternity to get the photos of the Switzerland trip that myself, Andi and Mark went on, I had lost the desire to post about it but the photos are now finally up on facebook for all to enjoy.

To summarise the trip it was a good laugh with fantastic weather until the penultimate day and a lot of problems were ticked. I wanted to spend the time climbing as a group, willing each other on, so not much time was given to projecting during the 10 days.

Highlights included warming up on day 1 with a few flashes of 7's before doing Hohenrausch in a couple of goes (having had a bit of a whitey on the flash attempt staring at the top)! What a great sequence of moves with a bit of commitment needed at the end.

I was made up to get Supernova finished off in a couple of short sessions having tried it With lore a couple of years ago. I got Jack the Chipper done on the same day after taking some performance enhancing pro plus and Coolpresso!

Other notable problems were Man of Cow, Foo Fighter and Goldfisch that all went down in 2-3 tries and the amazing Blown Away! It has to be the best 7B I have ever climbed and worth the trip alone.

I would have been content to just tick 7's with a few 7C's but on the 2nd to last day, rain forced us down to the Bruno block and I couldn't get on Cote de Seshuan due to rivers of water running down it. In the grim rain I headed around the corner and saw a group of people trying Never Ending Story part 2. I had tried the first move the day before for 5 minutes in the dark and almost held it...

3 campus attempts were all it took to hold and lock down that high edge and with a wave of energy I crushed the fuck out of it all the way to the finish screaming more out of suprise than any feelings of difficulty or fatigue.

It was a great way to end the trip for me as the last day was a washout where I played on Astronautfieber, Nothing Changes and NES pt1 doing all the moves on the latter 2 in a matter of minutes. Fatigue and general wetness prevented linking them and I kind of regretted not having tried harder problems earlier in the trip (as I had decided not to gamble and just get a lot of classic 7's done incase the weather turned).

Mark did well in the Woods considering he hasn't really bouldered much back home in the UK and he almost punched way above his highest grades doing the hard part of Fliegen Erlabut only to fall off on the technical ledge pulling ;)

Andi had a bit of a slow start but began to tick over towards the tail end of the trip getting Red Roses done after puntering it up hard for a couple of earlier sessions. He ticked through a fair few 7's and I'm sure he'll be getting into the harder 7's when the next opportunity arises.

Back from the trip I now know that I could have climbed at least a few more problems in the 8's and I regrettably didn't even pull on to Octopussy fearing failure. Next time will be different and weather permitting... I will get to work on these great problems and send them into space :)

Cave Season

Conditions at the moment are starting to get better as temps drop and the skies stay dry over the Orme. Unfortunately I have been unable to get to the cave since getting back from holiday due to a heavy workload on Tuesdays. This will change next month and hopefully the month of Power endurance training will start to take effect on Pit of Hell and Halfway House. These problems are high up on the wishlist along with Mr Fantastic and are all very doable in 2 halves. I am hoping doing 20-25 move circuits in the crypt roof will help and that I haven't lost too much strength in the meantime by neglecting the 45 board.

Slack...

2009-07-27T02:22:00.000-07:00

On the blogging. Indeed.

I've lately been suffering from a lack of motivation to post anything on my blog as I feel there is no point if nothing is being achieved and prefer to pour my time into other things such as training and reading (as well as finally getting around to sorting out learning to drive!)

It is only 14 days from now that myself, Mark and Andi will be heading over to Magic Wood for a 2 week jaunt of endless crushing and big numbers... maybe with Tom but I won't hold my breath ;)

After the trip to the Lakes in June, it has been a quiet time, just training for 2 weeks indoors and then getting down to the Cave quite regularly twice or more a week working on things I feel I should be able to do but never seem to finish off.

I've managed to punter up the finish on Pit of Hell and Broken Heart recently (conditions have been far from ideal with wet holds and muggy weather but I feel I should be capable of these problems where there are no real hard moves involved.

I decided I am lacking in the endurance department so have been climbing a lot of the endurance 7B and above problems at the end of sessions once I have battered myself to deep fatigue and hopefully these laps of long 20+ move problems will have some crossover benefit to the long hard problems I have been working on.

I'll quickly sum up what's been going on over the last month and a bit;

Early July

Managed to get the cave a lot, dropping Pit of Hell finish a couple of times, started working on Crucial Times. Crucial Times hurt a lot as well as the pull off the ground being nails. I at least highlighted a clear weakness in being unable to pull off undercuts and thin sidepulls above my head! Managed a good new problem (the ss to Clever Cleaver) and had a look at We've a Beaver but it was wet and greasy. I suppose the good thing is that I can still lap Rockatrocity with ease thankfully!

Mid July

Kev and Liam made an epic drive up to the cave for the day to meet up with myself, O and Pete and we had a good session. I was massively impressed by Liam's beastly levels of strength and the ease in which he could lock holds down, he got me to try the footless finish of Lou Ferrino that is given 8A+ in the guide but seems a bit soft at the grade? i managed all the moves bar the drop down match before you pull into the finish slot (the big iron cross span across from pocket to pocket felt ok every time). We got psyched for Broken Heart and Liam was managing to crush the backhand method in a super bunched position. There is no way I'll do it this way so I tried for ages to get the heel-toe method to work to no avail.

Kev was getting good links on RA once I showed him a switch in foot position for the move to the flake and will probably have it in the bag next time he comes up.

A few days later and I had my first trip to Rubicon with Mark and Andi where we met up with psyched Sam who never stops talking ^^. I had just managed to do Kudos before he arrived which felt nails. With some beta I got a couple other things and tried the Press but kept greasing off after locking to the edge. We hit the Tor after and I got a couple of old nemesis' from my last trip about 2 years ago in Rattle and Hump start and undercut to crimp. Sam gave beta on Right of Ben's Roof and I fell off the last move on the flash much to my dismay!

Tues 21st July
Me and a gang of yoofs from Liverpool had a short roadtrip to Wales where we spent Tuesday in the cave all day for an epic 8 hour session where there was quite a bit of wetness so tried Clyde and got straight through to the cross under move with feet high up in the roof. I never managed to make the move but was getting closer to it every go slowing down the move and feel it will go with less grease. Shauna amazed me by being able to span the move to the greasy pinch having a massive reach disadvantage and got a good flash of Lip Service.

Sean repeated Clever Beaver and Mark put some time in on Pillar start as he tried to get accustomed to the less steep side of the cave. (I find most things on left wall desperate compared with pulling through a roof)

I finally managed 1 new problem at the end of the session getting an ascent of Beaver Cleaver Direct after finally working out the feet positions to catch the lip and stay on :)

We had an entertaining night of bivi'ing in Shit infinity where after about 5 cans of strongbow I claimed a headtorch ascent of Organ Grinder without being able to see my feet or where I was dynoing to!

Wednesday 22nd July
We had a massive breakfast in Llandudno's Weatherspoons and were dismayed by the locals already on their 4th pints at 10am in this grim seaside theatre!

Back to the cave and I was in a great amount of pain, so dosed up on painkillers and worked on Clyde again and Halfway briefly with Ben Pritch. I felt terrible so decided to try and wake my body up and did a lap of RA followed by a lap of Lou F from 2 moves in. This sprung me into life and Jim showed me the foot lock on Broken Heart. After a few goes it finally stuck and flowed until a couple moves from the end of Bust Lip only for me to power out and fail! Gutting.

Thursday 23rd July
The team was feeling a bit wrecked so after a brief play on Bellpig (A career nemesis), we drove to Beris where I purchased some Boreal Blades much to the mirth of the young sponsored heros I was with. We got a shower in Pete's, then attempted to put Mark's 6 man £30 Fisher Price tent up in the pass in ridiculously strong winds which shut us down! We bailed to Pizza and a Pint night which was, as always, amazing. The weather looked dodge, so we sacked it home to Liverpool then set out to Raven Tor on Thursday. Mike and Sean got shut down on what we thought was a 7a warmup route that had at least a v8/9 boulder start?! So then they did Little extra which looked ok. I warmed up on the direct start a few times then went over to Ben's Roof and crushed the problem right of Ben's 2nd go after dropping the finish hold on the first attempt of the day (Cheers to Sam for the heavy beta last week!). The skies opened and we went to Stockport wall where I continued to break myself by climbing every problem bar 3 in the session.

Sunday 26th July
2 days of pain coming down off the heavy ibuprofen doses and we went to check out the Depot. I have to say it is the best indoor climbing facility I have ever been to and the problem setting was very good. We warmed up crushing almost the entire yellow circuit and the Blades were working nicely! After a long lunch break we felt like we could move again and after warming up on a couple purples... went to work on the black circuit (You get a months pass if you crush them all in a session I believe?). I scoped out a crimpy board style one and managed to flash it much to my suprise. The one opposite up an arete with compression and heels looked most suited and this too went down first go. On a roll I moved right and saw another involving a slappy start followed by pinches and heels. After the first 2 moves I knew it was in the bag and got the top without much effort! After this it was downhill as the far end prow towards the new area shut me down hard along with the black through the barrel roof. I managed the one opposite the entrance after many goes where you cross over your head with a heel on the starting block (dropping the last move twice before finally dispatching).

We were shown the new giant roof as well as Ned and Dan's woody and they looked absolutely amazing for training. We stopped off on the way home to have a look at City Bloc which didn't really inspire me in the same way but the setting looked good. Sugden wasn't in which was a shame as it would have been good to see how he is getting on.

The next 2 weeks
I think it's a bit too late to do any beneficial training for the Magic Wood trip, so I'll focus on eating well and drinking less in the build up as well as getting in plenty of mileage and resting properly. I have ordered the all important stove top espresso maker today and a giant tub of protein powder to aid multiple days on :)

If I can get any photos off Mark from our recent days out, I'll get them up on here, to make this less of a ball ache to read!

Summer has started

2009-06-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted mostly due to nothing of note being sent or worked on. The up and down weather and lack of any holiday plan this summer has caused a drop off in psyche in combination with taking on a new part time job in retail.

I have been quite busy with driving lessons and have also started to train indoors again in some sort of rough pattern (working through strength, into power, into some endurance is the aim) to help make the most of my erratic working hours.

I'll quickly summarise what I've been up to over the last month!

Mid May

Had a short solo trip into N Wales camping in the pass and working on Mr Fantastic, managing to sort out the crux drop down match without having to resort to heel-toe anti beta. I climbed from the start through this a few times only to fail on the snatch to the edge on Bus Stop. I am quite tired by this point so obviously have a lack of endurance at the moment which will undoubtedly be needed in order to get this done anytime soon! It's the same as with Halfway house and needs addressing (hence starting training again instead of puntering about ticking 7a-b's!)

30th May - Angel Bay
I had a good day out at Angel Bay with Si and Andy F, where we had originally aimed at going the hills but turned off early in the face of multiple ridiculous roadworks and queues!

Andy ran about like a kid in a sweet shop as he does ticking most of the things up to V6 but refusing to try the ultra classic Chaos Emerald Crack! Shame. Si was going fairly well too and after a good while I managed to work out the crux move on Papa Big Punch and got it sent not long after. It was good fortune to be here at last when the pebbles were low enough to climb everything! I forgot to mention I was properly hungover and trying to avoid being sick again, so swerved Manc Dogs in favour of sunbathing and getting back home earlier so we could watch some of the FA cup Final in the pub :) Good work Chelski!

Early June

The Merseyside posse had a wonderful 4 day trip to the Lake District.

Day 1 - Honister/Bowderstone

We started off in the Honister Pass which was boiling but good fun on the main roadside block. A few of us went up to the high boulder and got spanked for a good hour on Occam's Razor and Ian's Lip. After needing a change of scenery we gave The Bowderstone a quick flyby visit on the first evening and found it was in terribly greasy condition. I was happy to get power pinch and statstick done as well as make rapid progress on Improper Opera (it probably would have gone down in a few goes if it wasn't for temps/grease/end of the day!)

Day 2 St Bees
It was fantastic, with clear skies and searing heat, we managed to sneak in and out of the shade to get things done including the classics like Headbanger, Undercooke, Hueco Crack, Yellow Desert...etc and Si took some time out from his impersonations of Robson Green's Extreme Fishing to make an against all odds ascent of Hueco Crack, great effort :D
I was hoping to tick everything I tried but got utterly shut down on Clash of the Titans which felt either very conditions dependant (i.e. not in 25 degrees and direct sun all day) or a bit harsh if compared with anything else there.

The highlights were defintely topping out Yellow Desert Scream (after declaring to Ben it looked flashable and taking about 10 attempts to get the first move ^^) followed by the immense BBQ afterwards (including a wonderful Mackerel caught by Robson Huthwaite ;)). Kate's lemon drizzle cake for pudding was divine! Some people got swimming in and cut their feet to shreds on the muscle shells but I was too busy on trying to tick the crag and make inroads into my 20 7A's and above goal for the trip.

Day 3 Gillercombe
The 3rd day was back into the hills and up the Honister Pass yet again. We missioned across the fells and eventually found the Gillercombe boulders. Ian's arete looked very good but was in the sun and very sharp, so we just got it done from standing! Day 3 skin wasn't having any of it... so we played it safe and climbed out the rest of the block (I was quite psyched to flash the only ascent of 'The World's Hardest V3' which was indeed a bit spicy!)

The highball Awesome arete was as good as it looked. Cave direct was a nice short burly challenge which had quite a few ascents. Poor Man's Caution was fairly steady but Zero Kelvin was cause for the most entertainment after I used the extremely suspect flake which moved about 2 inches backwards before I managed to slap up with my lefthand and unweight it. Ben declared it to be safe as houses and after jumping on and climbing up... he leaned back to step high, it ripped clean off and Ben avec block came hurtling down to Earth to scare the shit out of everyone! Owen's mate Pete from Eskdale came up with a safe method using heels and technique and Ben got it straight after using the old sequence as well as the new secure hold left behind from his destruction. :)

In the evening we all piled into Ben's car (as I forgot to mention the nightmare of O's breaking down on Tuesday night! We used a car ferry system with Ben doing two long journeys up the Honister Pass on day 3 and back again... What a leg end) and headed into Cock in Mouth. We located a good looking Indian and had a sit in meal which was very good if a little expensive. It obviously paled in comparison with the mighty Noor of Aigburth but it weren't half bad.

Day 4 - Warton
O managed to get some shiny gold things to fix his car and we cruised back down the M6 towards Liverpool stopping off at Warton on the way back. As the team bemoaned their varying states of tiredness/aches I felt amazing and felt like crushing! The warmup was brief and after about 30 mins I had managed to get E Fix in the bag. Result. It felt easier than Poison to me as the first move was piss compared to how hard it looked and it's less moves as well!
We moved over to the middle Pinnacle and got the flash on Totally Focussed and the sitter (cheers to ben for the heavy beta!). Just to the left we enjoyed the easier lines of which the arete and Beastmaster were fucking brilliant for easy lines! We repeated them in trainees and then eliminating holds as you should ;) The highlight was me and Ben heckling Smooth Pete on the font 4 arete causing him to get confused, downclimb a move, climb up, stop and then fall off with pump! Mighty fine heckling.

Mid June

June 13th - Clogwyn Y Tarw
Last weekend a strong team of hommes ventured up to Ogwen and found it to be warm as hell (after carrying up my thermals and a coat). Having not been here before, it was quite exciting and the warmup circuit was good with Raging Bull being a great traverse line. Ben managed to add a fairly desperate and bunched sitter into El Gringo 29 which Tony Gaskins swiftly repeated! (Tony is a beast from Awful Walls Liverpool who has only been outside about twice and has sickening strength and fingers already, he will be scary when he can use the lower half of his body! ;))

We moved on to The Thief and this got dispatched via the sloper and straight to the break by myself, it's such a nice move! We worked out pretty much every way of failing on the sitter but came away with a decent sequence by the end of it and moved over to Red Sky Wall. I got the flash on this also and then the sitter straight away. It is a wonderful sequence of techy moves on nice edges and then odd layaway pockets to a commiting final move.
Down the hill and Owen tore The Punk a new arse from standing as myself and Jamie flailed on it for a good half hour losing a ton of skin in the process. In a moment of desperation I went round the corner to see what Tony had nearly broke his legs on, 'Here Comes Cadi' which looked quite funky. A heavy dab lost the flash but on the 2nd attempt, I managed to get the big hold right and then do a good 5+ second 1 arm lock off into a 1 armer and then get my foot back on as I screamed down the valley. The top out was on grim suspect looking rock but the moves underneath made it worthwhile!

June 16th - Warton
Last night, myself, Si, O and Smooth Pete returned to Warton so Pete and O could get closure on the various Debaser lines. O got the left hand link done and totally pathed it static on each move. Pete was a bit out of sorts and somehow didn't get Debaser done but he should next time.

I had gone with the intention of trying the 8a linkup traverse into Efix called Ebanezer Good but it was boiling and I couldn't be arsed so thought I'd have a look at Voodoo People again after having 1 pull on when with Ben last time. I tried Ben's method once more and failed nearly face planting the block so decided to try using the awkward looking deep mono closer in. I got the right toe on the lip and reached into the mono, finding it went in real deep. This let me crank and get my weight up and over that right foot and after pressing like a bastard to get stood up, it was done!
The sitter took 2 more goes and my right hand was in a fair amount of tweaky pain badness but the wave of relief knowing I don't have to try this harsh sandbag ever again made up for it :D
Decided to stop straight away after that, so as not to inflame the hand anymore and it feels a lot better today already. I might hit the weights in a bit but more likely will sit off and watch some psyche material...

Good times

2009-05-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday 2nd

Me and Owen returned to Warton along with smooth Pete D and there was no messing about this time with a rapid crush of Poison (after failing twice and moaning about general weakness for half an hour ;)) Owen wasn't having his best day ever but Pete was going well and almost climbed Debaser on a couple of tries, which definitely looks a stiffer proposition for gentlemen of less blessed stature.

Whilst O and Pete worked away I played with the dog for a couple hours whilst grazing my way through a veritable feast I had prepared at the Ivory that even surpassed M&S's finest service station selections!

We hit the cafe and fueled up on caffeine and cake, followed by the highlight of the day managing to have a shit in an actual toilet and not deep in the undergrowth of the S Lakes! With this loss of several pounds we headed straight to Trowbarrow and did a bit of running about mixed with some star jumps to try and wake up again.

I thought I was on for the Iron Man twice only to grease off the holds with everything in place for the slap right and quickly changed plans, heading around back and failing 3 times whilst my fingers crept over the top lip on Texas hold em. We had to shoot and I was yet again left feeling shut down and demoralised by going to the stone late in the day.

Monday 4th

We awoke to grim skies and blanket rain but with assurances from the ever positive Si, we managed to rouse Matt from his post party time coma and I jumped in the Blue Motion for the ride over to the Gorge.

A couple of attempts on Holger's ridiculously long traverse weren't getting much further than the finish of Thug Mentality/start of Mental extension so I decided to finally try and flash Chessie Si's Faith Healer problem to the left of Be Ruthless. I had been trying to put it off for the last few visits citing fatigue and such but now was the time...

I chalked up, pulled on and after hitting the grim fingerstack, I messed about with my feet for a while, only to cross over and cut loose, freestyle the moves and then I was in position for the last move crux. I gave it a good throw but failed to get the top of the hold, pinching it with all my weakness until it could no longer be pinched... plummeting downward to land on the mats dejected.

A couple more tries and it was done but it didn't half hurt the skin. We bailed not long after and I don't really care much for returning anytime soon!

Saturday 9th

Me, O and Stu hit the Cave and it was great to be back after what felt like an age. Stu's mate Toby and his strong crew from Sheffield were there keen on becoming involved with the majestic cave and all her trickery. I had intended to rock up and crush Halfway house and then go eat donuts all day on the pier but after a few attempts I realised I was going to get the shut down as the humidity rose steadily during the cloud cover and rain spells.

Opting to make the most of it I threw myself into trying to climb everything in 2 halves and pull on to other things to give beta to those in trouble! It proved a good workout and I felt on the verge of passing out or vomiting several times. A good beating was being delivered upon me and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a random urge to try Pit of Hell again after a long time away from it and to my amazement I managed to get the wobbly jug first try and then continue into RA... Score! I didn't shake out and just tried to blast through only to fail miserably when matched on the pockets sizing up the flake. If only I had been rested and not been a muppet.

That kind of finished me off and we took a trip down to the pier, discovering on the way that we only had enough money for 6 donuts and 1 espresso between the 3 of us. So we had 2 each and a rough 3rd of an espresso utilising each angle of the cup's rim to avoid the bad aids :P

We finished off with a nice session on the box retroing some stuff and amazingly I managed to get Chocolate Wall first go.. I don't know how but it just happened and didn't feel too bad apart from the desperate match and scream to get the jug and match tentatively! I was massively impressed by Alex from Sheff getting 10+ new problems of 7A and above in his first cave/box session! Machine.

Sunday 10th

I was quite excited to check out a new place being developed by Andy Popp and Ben F for the new Merseyside/Cheshire guide that is in the pipeline, as I had been told of wondrous technical walls, aretes and ribs with a lack of holds and a grading system that would make the Step Wall and Crypt appear very much Swiss!

The plans were changed and I ended up at Pex with Ben not expecting it to be dry, but lo and behold it was pretty mint.

We warmed up on Pisa Wall with Ben shaking his head at my highly unorthodox versions of certain problems ;) I could not contain my psyche for very long and we were straight over to Lady Jane padding up the landing under Monoblock. I had a couple of decent attempts standing up and slapping at the good slot but didn't really feel like I could give 100% until we had a couple more mats. Then Dave, Si and Stu rocked up with the goods.

I kept getting high up to the same move every time getting my fingers in or below or above and not quite timing it. We wandered around a bit getting people to try other things and I was made up for Stu finally getting Hart's Arete done after plenty of sessions! Effort. It is still Si's ultimate nemesis and not really suited to a man of his flexibility and stumpy handedness ;)

Dave climbed Philarmonic which looked great... only for me to call him out for illegal hold useage which was swiftly confirmed by a a member of the Pex Hill Ethics Commitee (Ben)! He was a bit irked but manfully stepped up and reclimbed it topping out in an acceptable manner, although it looked a tad harsh at the supposed v4 grade!

I had almost given up for the day with thin skin and a few cuts from greasing off violently on the high RH crimp but as the sky went dark and a breeze picked up I got pysched for another try. The first go resulted in an early off balance failure due to being a bit too keen to get the crush on. I rechalked and felt really calm knowing it could go.

The moves felt easy as I just stood up hardly even using the thin rh sidepull. The lh crimp felt huge up high as did the 2 finger rh one. I did the necessary foot faggotry to stand up above the break and then lunged at the slot up and left getting it perfectly in the middle and calling upon the power of auto crimp I stayed in! There was no question of finishing at the break as I pressed then pressed again straight through to the break skipping the intermediate. The top break was pretty dusty and I regretted having no chalkbag. I shook my way along into the beehive and made a fairly scary backhand into the suspect flake up high standing up in the hive and making use of the tree branch on offer over the grassy top.

I've never felt so happy to do a problem and was shaking with adrenaline for a good minute after. Something I didn't really expect to be capable of had gone down in relatively no time and all from just having a positive approach and state of mind that has been key to this years progress.

I'm quite keen to go back now to finish off the other comparatively easier lines on the Lady Jane Wall, where plenty more brilliant lines and spicy top outs await.

Looking back and then ahead

2009-04-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'll firstly recap what's been going on this week in the murky world of Merseyside climbing....

Sat 25th Apr

A strong car carrying such luminaries as McShane, Farley and to a lesser extent myself, headed off to the sunny S Lakes. As tempting as it was to get dropped off at Trowbarrow, I was keen to check out what Warton Pinnacle had to offer (apart from the epic walk-in).

Upon arriving we were pleased to see dry rock and set to work warming up on these supposed V1 highballs that all felt around HVS 6b! I thoroughly enjoyed shaking like a shitting dog up nearly all of these minor classics much to the mirth of Benedict!

Once the messing was over with, I quickly got to work crushing the kneebar hanging crack thing that is the finish for both Poison and E-Fix. Deciding I would likely deck on an attempted reversal, I opted to shake my way to the top utilising some old skool jamming technique.

Matty D rocked up and joined in the farcical sandbagging and once we felt ready to turn on the power I managed to drag myself up Debaser by the skin of my teeth via a couple of cut loose dynos where I didn't quite catch the holds but held on grimly to avoid a trip to Lancaster A&E.
I expected Matt to follow me up but then I remembered static crimping beasts don't jump and we joined O on Poison.

After about an hour of arsing around we had all fallen off towards the finish and Owen with the kneebar going in, devestating! The conditions were a bit on the tropical side of humid with frequent rain showers and then dead heat to follow... causing my complexion to change from red faced to yellow to a disturbing green before I gave up and just feasted on the mat.

Sun 26th

After a decent night of sleep, I was feeling much better and after a brief trip into town to purchase a thoroughly strong t-shirt, me and Si went to the majestic Pex Hill with Dave. It was great to be back on Pisa Wall just standing on ledges and bearing down on wonderful crimps and 3 finger stacks :)

The warming up was brief and me and dave got the mats spread out underneath Monoblock. The flash attempt was a surprise as I got stood up in the break using the anti-beta but progress was then severly halted using this methodology. After Dave managed to piece things together in his head we realised it was right foot up and not left :P

With this knowledge I got stood up every time and then matched on the high holds. A further go and I had managed to get stood up on a nubbin roughly 1ft above the break and pulled down hard to see how much height I had. I was locked in on straight legs but the pocket/slot seemed far away.. I had a glance down and realised a missed dyno would result in decking out so duly bailed. With the pads adjusted, it wasn't long before I made it back to the same move and this time a rockover slap resulted in a 2 inch miss and a decent bit of airtime.

Attempts were being hindered somewhat by rapscalions throwing stones across the quarry and walking across the top on some sort of rotational shift and combined with more rain showers we sacked it off as it went dark, opting for a swift pint at the Unicorn Inn!

I couldn't believe that I had managed to get stood up, let alone slapping at the pocket as it is not exactly a style of climbing I am well versed in, having trained or climbed primarily in the cave and indoor walls. It is a massive goal and a local testpiece with a bit of history and would be a joy to climb to complete the big 3 on Lady Jane Wall.

Tues 28th

The weather all day was truly horrific but unperturbed, we made the journey to Pantymwyn and lo and behold it was bone dry with good temps! Amazing.

The warmup felt great and I quickly dispatched Be Ruthless first attempt of the session. The sitter took a couple more attempts after dropping the last move twice but once I had it, there was more of a sense of completion. This seemed to get Owen and Chessie Si a bit more psyched and they both crushed the standup within 15 mins of one another.

Andy made what was definitely the most on-off ascent of a problem ever as he cut loose and swung about on Firestarter about 5 times grabbing non holds, compressing nothingness and grasping the top with a bit of a scream and a lot of shaking. Good effort beast!

I briefly tried the moves on the Yellow Finish to Sparks and couldn't really work it out so turned attention to Thug Mentality. After figuring out the finish I pulled on for a redpoint and managed to get through to the 2nd to last move before pumping out and failure. Owen pointed out a better heel placement and after a 10 min rest I shook my way across to get it on the next try giving myself a bit of a calf strain in the process from pulling on that final jug.

We had a small celebratory meal in the Loggerheads pub afterwards and I must say the Sea Bass was divine.

Looking ahead

I posted a list of problems last November that were my wishlist to get done at some stage in 2009/10 and with the recent spate of form and decent weather I have made great headway:

1. Jerry's Roof (The pass) yyfy
2. Lou Ferrino (cave) yyfy
3. Trigger Cut (cave) yyfy
4. Jess's Roof (Almscliff)
5. Fallen Idol (roche)
6. Lizard King (The pass) yyfy
7. Be Ruthless (pantymwyn) yyfy
8. Sparks (pantymwyn) yyfy
9. Hurricane (curbar)
10. Pit of Hell (cave)

I would have been made up to get half of them done so to get 6 before the end of April has been great on a personal level. It has really helped climbing with people I look up to as inspirations and the Merseyside scene is pretty damn good at the moment with a lot of mutual support and encouragement going on to get things done. I'd like to say thanks to O and Si for the massive amount of lifts & psyche and the free wine & accomodation respectively! ;)

Looking back at this list, I have definitely changed my goals for 09 to be a bit more ambitious but hopefully still attainable. I'll now try and focus on getting:

1. Monoblock (Pex Hill)
2. Mr Fantastic (Jerry's Roof)
3. Halfway House (Cave)
4. Iron Man (Trowbarrow)
5. Texas Hold em (trowbarrow)

I feel fairly confident apart from number 5 which is gradually turning into a lifetime goal! :o

p.s. Will try and pad this out with a few photos when Si or Andy gets them online!

And the beat goes on

2009-04-22T01:30:00.000-07:00

Following on from the previous week of devestational form, the sun was beaming yet again and all was well in the South Lakes...

S Lakes Sat 11th

On Saturday 11th a large posse descended upon G land.

It started off with me and Owen hooking up with Kev at the classy services on the M6 northbound (with an M&S and decent espresso!). We rocked up to Woodwell and happened upon a broken Dolph Lundgren lying spreadeagled across his mat tenderly holding what was left of his shoulders after a morning beating himself up on a fairly wet Kaizen. Mine and Kev's infectious enthusiasm to campus about on crimps led to a fairly inadequate warmup but I was psyched for the Art of Self Destruction so quickly set up camp underneath and started drying.

The grips were wet underneath but I was certainly prepared after raiding the airing cupboard at home and making off with a bag of towels. The vagrant Mills and his westie partner, sir Donnelly arrived eventually and this added psyche and artistic bent must have sparked some creative thoughts... After a couple of unsuccessful slaps at the top jug, I decided to try a mix of both styles, by taking the left toe-hook out and stepping the left foot up on to the flat edge whilst keeping the right foot on the back ledge. I sagged slightly then just pressed hard through the left foot while pulling into a wonderful arc like movement and floated seamlessly into the awaiting jug, perfect! It didn't feel too hard and I have no idea what the grade is... I'm not overly bothered as it is a great move and a S Lakes G classic!

The scene grew stronger as Andi and Nicki turned up and we all decided to move camp to Fairy Steps. Another car carrying Jamie and Cath joined on to the procession exiting the carpark and our 10 strong posse moved on. I wasn't too fussed about climbing much after ticking a longterm goal and was happy to eat, heckle, then eat some more. Matt continued his comeback by getting Aeon in the bag whislt Dolph disappeared up the hill to crush the sitter to Axiom in the midday sun. Bestia.

As people tired, we decided to change the scene again by moving over to Trowbarrow, where Tom and I got reaquainted with the puzzle that is Texas Hold 'em. It is a truly wonderful set of unobvious moves that requires power, brutality, uspidedown shenanigans, flexibility and conditions... most of which were lacking. I managed to ascend the V4 topout in isolation for the first time ever and thought this could well be the day after 5 fruitless sessions! It was not to be as I had a double grease off, resulting in a rather heavy horizontal landing and I had to tap out. This seemed to prove off-putting to Mills, and we joined the others around the block. Owen and Kev were looking at Vitruvian Man whilst Tom, Jamie and Andi played on Pit Problem. Being the twat I am, I booted up and retro flashed both of them, lapping up the boos and cat calls from the crowd! ;)

I failed to make any headway on Iron Man as I was totally spent.

S Lakes Mon 13th

To make the most of the wonderful Easter weekend a return to the S Lakes was in order. Whilst Owen sat under Aeon, Si, Tom and myself went to find some esoteric gems. We came across a couple of classic G sandbags. The V1 shut down the whole team until I unleashed overpower upon it and climbed it the v6 way. Feeling pathetic, we moved on a little further and foundThe Trick thanks to bushman Si's navigational prowess (I feel a leading role on 'I'm a gritstone punter, get me out of here!' could be on the cards). I declared the Trick to look piss in my usual overconfident lack of wisdom and failed to flash it. I decided to dispense with any form of trickery and just did a satisfying dyno to the jug which worked. The muddy topout proved tricksome but it was in the satch so to speak. I added the sitter in a couple of goes which is of truly questionable quality. Si did a controversial righthand version using jugs and Tom got some time in on the rock, obviously not ascending anything but looking strong in the process!

We got back over in time for us to shout O along an ascent of Aeon which is rapidly becoming a Merseyside posse warmup problem.

Everyone disappeared whilst me and Millso stayed behind for him to try Aeon. After Mike telling me I should flash the Aeon Prow, I brushed the holds, had a feel, then pulled on slapping out to the poor pinch on the apex and then building my feet up, I gave it all I had and unexpectedly had my fingers over the top only to fail to hold on. There went the flash and I could feel a great deal of pain in the right fingers. The amount of boning required on the sharp sidepull/crimp is horrifying. I made a decision to make sure I got it done and sacrificed my chances on Iron Man. I got it in about 5 attempts but split a tip quite deep in the process.

Sat 18th

Me and Matt went back yet again to Fairy Steps and met up with Paul Craven who was really nice to climb with. We gave him the numbers on things and watched him crush. Matt got close on the Aeon Reverse and I finally managed to get Aeon Crack at stiff V4! Remind me never to go to Yosemite to attempt anything other than bouldering. We had a look at Axiom and Walk Away in the ridiculous heat and then moved on to Trowbarrow.

I quickly worked out my definite sequence to Iron Man and climbed into the start of Vitruvian only to keep greasing off both holds as it was baking hot. Deciding to come away with at least 1 new problem for the day, I worked out a brilliant right heel hook requiring flexible hips to make the last move of Ned's problem static to the lip with the left hand and eliminating the swing :) With this in the bag, we bailed back to the Pool!

Tues 21st - Return to the Mwyn!

I was all psyched up for Trowbarrow yesterday only for owen to change the destination to the Gorge so we could meet up with Chessie Si. Walking down there brought back fond memories of climbing Under the Bridge last year. Once we were down by the entrance, we could see that it was in awesome condition and this triggered psyche mode.

We warmed up with some bad sequences on Firestarter to dismay Paul from the wall.. who escaped to do routes with Lee Proctor around the corner and me and O got down to business time.

Owen achieved first with a rapid 2nd ascent of Si's problem the Faith Healer. I managed to drop the last move on Sparks 3 times before getting angry, going topless and crushing it to pieces. Joyous! Problem 1 was in the bag and I went over to Be Ruthless to unleash the fury. I failed many times and eventually climbed the last section using 3 methods all of which I couldn't actually do when climbed into from the start. The frustration was palpable and then Owen had a bit of a breakthrough making the last move more accessible. With a decent rest and renewed vigour, I climbed all the way into this move, made it and then had a mind blank, dropped off in pain and called it quits. It will get done next session without any trouble at all and the sitter likewise.

It was great to go back to the Gorge and get back on these problems after both of us having improved quite significantly since last year. We may be back this weekend to finish off Be Ruthless and I can try and flash Faith Healer to wind up Si! :)

Rich vein of Form/Luck

2009-04-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

Since getting Trigger Cut in the bag I have been managing to maintain what for me is good form. The trips have been plentiful and I feel that doing as Mike and Tony said (just get out climbing and forget training), has been the best bit of advice I have ever had (bar the Guru's training programme ;))

S Lakes
In the South Lakes I managed to tick off Vitruvian Man which I really had my heart set on and on a beautiful sunny day out with Matt we also met my climbing hero Johnny G and got Aeon in a session. I got fairly close in a few goes on Art of Self Destruction before it went too dark to see but know I can get this quickly if I get another chance this year.

Wales trip
A little more recently, I took advantage of the Easter break and went camping in Nant Peris for a few days, which in fact turned out to be one night camping, then 3 nights of relative luxury staying in the Vagabonds club hut and round Jamie's in Bangor.
My goal was to climb Jerry's Roof having never really bothered with it before, due to it looking like an epic endurance route. I felt terrible on day 1 so pottered around the Barrel and meadow boulders with Jamie and had a fairly good time. The next day was a long day of working out the best sequence but I felt really run down and decided to make Saturday an easy day of sleeping and reading...

The Vags had other plans and I was rudely awoken early doors and taken to Tremadog to crush some Severes. We did one severe and then they tried to sandbag me a bit on some E1 called Barbarian. It was great fun and I think I'll maybe get out and do a few more soon as it is quite relaxing.
We had a great communal meal in the evening and I managed to get 3rds before the pans were empty. Result. There was also a really nice slideshow afterwards with some ice and ropes, guns and polar bears...etc

I awoke Sunday feeling amazing and went up to the Cromlechs with J to warm up briefly before heading straight to Jerry's. I pulled on the start of the tourist tick feeling light and just seemingly floated across doing the crux static and then finishing off with relative ease. I was kind of surprised but a bit underwhelmed as it is not the original line. I had a bit of lunch and pulled on to the arete and just spanned straight across skipping the slopey shelf, the heel-toe cammed in and I could come straight across, up into the crux only to fall off from not resting properly.. Punter!
A decent rest later and I was back at the crux swinging about but held on just enough to get my feet back in contact. The slap to the arete felt sketchy but I fought my way to the finishing jugs and rocked out over the top after a bit of indecision. What a great line!

I had a trip to the Mill with Jamie the next day and felt terrible, so just did some core work and a bit of sloper deadhanging. With the weather crapping out I went back to the 'Pool a bit early and had a welcome rest day on Tuesday.

Return to Jerry's
I headed back the pass yesterday with Andi E, Sam D, Nicki and Stu in a packed car and we wasted an hour or so in Llanberis with Stu and Andi trying on several pair of shoes they had no intentions of purchasing, so I went off to use the toilet and buy some cakes and we eventually made it up into the pass for around 2 maybe.

We warmed up at the roadside face and after showing Sam the Sting we decided to see if we could pull off the deck on Arachnaphobia. We both managed to pull on and slap at a pinch but progress was halted here. V8 chinny reckon.

We were both psyched to try Mr Fantastic, so we headed over only to find about 20 people in the queue trying to get a ticket for Jerry's :o Sam being the polite and patient person he is kinda took over the scene giving beta out and greasing it all up! ;)

I went straight in for the redpoint from the left arete and somehow found myself matched on the bus stop holds and with the heel-toe lock still in! I worked it out and had my feet on only for my right foot to pop off the dink before I could make the throw out to the edge. I was fairly pumped but had finally climbed through the crux after 2 sessions. It is really high up on my longterm wishlist and it would be amazing to climb it this year. I feel capable but need to hit it with fresh arms and skin with everything going smoothly to stand a chance. Kook pointed out a link to us to have a go on reversing the Mr Fantastic crux from Bus Stop into Jerry's then finishing up JR. It was perfect for me being both shouldery and reachy and with a bit of screaming I managed to get it in the bag in about 10 mins or so. It is a nice link and definitely felt harder than Bus Stop or Jerry's Roof so probably bottom end 7C+.

We finished off with a little trip over to Caseg Fraith and I spent a few minutes losing a lot of skin and getting nowhere on 'Repeat after Me'. Utterly deserperate it seemed. It has M Adams written all over it being similar to Speedway but probably easier.
We played on some highball slabs above the Fraith and Andi managed to shave a bit of his chin off sliding down from high up. Shortly afterwards, I bottomed out into the swamp missing the mats on my go. I was quite relieved it was boggy or I'd probably have my ankles in casts by now!
On the way back to Beris, Sam finished off the link I had done earlier and we went for pizza and a pint which is absolutely amazing and highly recommended. Saw a few familiar faces in there including a still psyched Johnny Dawes who I was giving some pointers to on the steep stuff earlier. He had left his thermarest and nalgene bottle at the roof and I was kinda gutted to have to hand them back over (the offer of a free meal for picking it up came a bit late as we had just eaten!).

Looking ahead
Easter weekend is looming and Kev is coming up from Wales to stay at Owen's so we are all looking forward to plenty of trips out over the next few days. I'm resting up in the chateau d'Ivoire with some vino and chocolate in preparation. I'm keen to get back on Art Of Self Destruction (weather permitting) and I was made up for Owen finally achieving the feat after 4 years of battling with shit weather and seepage to get it sent! :)

Lots of action

2009-03-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

It has been great weather for the last week or so and plenty of trips outside:

Sat 14th - Brimham

An early start for Owen, Ben and myself (team strong)... led to us arriving a lot earlier than team chong (Si, Paul, Hitman) who were still relaxing in Mersyside as we were entering the ghetto of Harrogate.

Upon arrival I was most impressed with the warmup problems of Pommel, Black Dog arete..etc and swiftly ticked a nice contrived line from sitting in a pit and shortly after added the classic lie down start.. what a stellar line trying to avoid the wedged block and holds out right! :P Jokes aside it climbed very well and we moved on to the grim anchor problem. Owen pointed out the grip sequence and I dispatched without losing too much skin on the top!

An epic trek across the moors landed us under Crimpy Roof and I was obviously instantly psyched for some overhanging crimp action. The Crimpy Roof 7b/+ looked ripe for the flash treatment but upon latching the edge of the jug on top my right hand greased violently off the crimp and it was bloodshed. A lot of wiping and taping, ensured I was able to get it done 2nd go and we turned attention to Dave Cowls 'To me to You' which looked fantastic. Owen figured out most of the moves including a nice burly campus compression to campus slap finish!
I Figured out my non-6ft 5inch frame beta and put it in the memory banks for a further visit as today was aimed at volume (I have enough projects on the Lime!).

A steady stream of venues were visited such as the Jokers Wall and No Red Tape with the amazing rockover problem being the highlight. As we got drained, a quick visit to Titfield Thundferbolt was in order, I had neither the skin nor the energy but hoped to glimpse some beta off a local. Someone was stood under it but refused to pull on for all the 10 minutes we were there...strange but at least Ben quickly got Whisky Galore using some camp rockover-thumb press-standing on your feet-style climbing ;)

After a quick brew at the tourist cafe, we popped over to the Niche and found the Hitman in his hustling routine making the desperate appear trivial. Me and O obviously went straight for the dyno as it looked immense and doable. Owen got a lot closer to holding the swing than myself and I think with fresh arms and skin we will get it done in short time, really cool jump to an aesthetic pinchy shelf! I went over to try Fantasy League as a warm down and after getting up on both aretes with a right heel on, I hit the energy wall and slid down on to the mats into a heap and gave up the game. Hitman got a bit closer but popped off as he slapped high up into the scrittly sandy arete. It's a nice problem but could probably do with being a bit less chossy.

Sunday 15th - Ogwen hit

I went out with a strong team of Yoofs from Merseyside as well as Fatneck who was making it 2 days out climbing in a row for the first time in ageeeees. We started off at the Caseg Fraith and I got stuck into the retro flash of the crag only to fail miserably on Boneyard and Skunk X. I felt likle shit from Saturday still and had horrificly poor skin, so decided to hike up to Animal Magnetism and see if it was worth the while. After a hideous treck, we arrived at the roof and were psyched with what we saw. Me and Dan started working out what to do whilst the others got on the stuff round the back (a very nice couple of problems). I managed to climb the problem from the pinch and first RH hold to the finish first try but when I rested and tried it from the pull-on I was dismayed by my total inability to move to the pinch without collapsing in a heap. It felt like my body positioning and strength were totally pathetic. Wondered whether the first LH hold had maybe gotten smaller and left it.

We had a tea break then headed over to the Milestone area where with 8 pads and 3 spotters I managed to shake my way up Monkey See arete, what a fucking amazing line with a high crux! Just Saturn left to do now for the trio of highballs (which incidently looks way harder than just 1 grade above the others?). We moved over to Marilyn Monroe area and after failing on the campus method on Einstein, I remembered hearing of a feet first ascent. A couple of goes and it was done! What a brilliant and unique style of problem. I would recommend it to anyone long of leg and strong of toe :)

The Pit boulder saw the others having a play and little Mike going into crush mode to get the Pit Start and his 2nd v5 of the day and outdoors... strong!

Tuesday 17th - Cave Time

On the way to the cave I was moaning to O and Pete about how shit I felt and that I might try and lay the nemesis of Left Wall Low to rest and maybe try the sitter to the Beavers.

After a pit stop and a lot of caffeine and chocolate i was firing on all cylinders and did my new regime of a bit of running and theraband before pulling on some big grips. The arms felt in good condition although the skin was still sore from the weekend. I pulled on to Trigger Cut and cruised through to the slap to the rail and almost held it. Good shit. Next try I held the rail for the first time ever and managed to get through to the very last move only to kick my feet against the wall in several places and run too low on energy to grab the last jug. devestation!

I had a banana, some water and had a word with myself, got back up there and then overslapped jabbing my fingers into the rock above the jug to fail again. I was beginning to well and truly punter it up from a winning position.... determined not to make it another Rockatrocity type siege, I unleashed the fury and was more solid than ever on the next try, gaining the 2nd to last hold for the 3rd time in a row. I was about to try and get a right heel on ( what the fuck!) when I heard Owen shouting for me to campus... the words slowly filtered through and I took my feet out, swung my hips left and back right again to stick the hardest jug to jug 1ft campus move I have ever done screaming to hold on. YYFY!

I staggered about for a while waiting for the adrenaline to fade away and enjoyed a small feast on my mat whilst watching smooth Pete crush Left Wall to make it a 2 out of 3 Team Merseyside projecting success. We only had Owen left to get Left Wall High done for the high fives, but he somehow managed to fall off the very last move as we willed him to just dyno 2 handed to the jug ledge at the end. He will get it done next time for sure and I am now psyched at the prospect of yet another new project... Halfway House appeals as well as Beaver Cleaver Direct (which I had a short play on late into the darkness) and Crucial Times as an ambitious one.

The lamplight session ended with my now traditional failure on Left Wall Low to the amusement of all present. I'll get it some day...maybe